


Septic MerMay Stories - Set 1

by CrystalNinjaPhoenix



Category: jacksepticeye
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Gen, MerMay, MerMay 2020, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 46,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25413073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalNinjaPhoenix/pseuds/CrystalNinjaPhoenix
Summary: What if the septics were merpeople? This collection of stories focuses on just that idea. Jack, Chase, Jackie, Schneep, Marvin, JJ, and Anti are water-dwellers, living peacefully, sometimes interacting with humans, sea creatures, and each other. Though perhaps "peacefully" is relative, as conflict is never too far away in the ocean.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	1. An Ending and a Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! I wrote these stories in May 2020, as a challenge for myself for MerMay. The reason it's Set 1 is because I plan to do the same thing next year, though who knows what the future will hold? Either way, I really enjoy this world and will return to it ^-^ Hope you enjoy!

A cool breeze drifted over the ocean. The sun was setting, nearly fully gone, lighting up the water until it turned into liquid fire. The main beach was still dotted with families and couples, but this small section, rockier than the other, was closed to the public. That didn’t stop the pair of teenagers from strolling down the sand. The couple was holding hands, neither of them looking any older than sixteen or seventeen. The boy suddenly broke off, running forward to a private dock extending off the beach. He turned back to look at the girl, grinning. “C’mon!”

The girl laughed. “Slow down, Chase!”

Chase laughed as well, stopping just before the dock. He pulled his gray cap off his head, ruffling his hair. His expression suddenly shifted into something more serious as he turned around to look at the setting sun. “Hurry up, Stacy, this is time-sensitive!”

Stacy sped up to catch up with him. Once even with him, she sighed, brushing away flyaway strands of honey ginger hair that had escaped her ponytail. “It’d help if you explained what this was all about.”

“I told you, it’s a surprise,” Chase insisted. “Besides, I don’t know how I’d explain it. You need to see it.” He started walking down the dock. “C’mon.”

The two of them walked all the way to the end, where they sat down, dangling their feet over the water. Stacy sighed, a smile drifting across her face. “It’s beautiful.”

“The sunset?” Chase asked.

“Yeah. They’re always good on the ocean, but this is especially pretty.”

“Hmm.” Chase nodded in agreement. “Hey Stacy…do you remember when we met?”

Stacy laughed. “Yeah. Just over there.” She waved down the beach, towards the more public section. “You know…I thought you were acting a bit weird at first,” she confided. “But that was before we really knew each other. If I’d known about the illness, I would’ve been nicer.”

“You were plenty nice,” Chase assured her. “I was a bit of a weirdo, I’m surprised you didn’t just laugh and walk away.”

“Still.” Stacy scooted closer to Chase. “Y’know, you’re a good kind of weirdo.”

Chase laughed. “Thanks.” For a moment, the serious expression returned. “Did you know that was a year ago?”

“Really? Huh.” Stacy shrugged. “No, I didn’t. Then again, summer beach days all blur together to me.”

“It was actually a year and a day ago,” Chase said. “Would…you think I was…the bad kind of weird if I said I’d seen you before that?”

“Uh…I mean, I guess it depends in what way.” Stacy was still smiling, but it faded a bit. “Like, if you were following me around, or if you’d just ran into me, or…?”

“I mean, like, I saw you when you came to the beach,” Chase explained. He looked down, playing with his hands. “With all your friends. I could hear what you were saying sometimes, and…I-I wanted to get to know you better. But I couldn’t. I know how that might sound, but I-I didn’t mean anything of it. I just wanted to know you. I didn’t think we’d end up…you know.”

“Dating for five months?” Stacy asked.

“Exactly.” Chase looked at her, placing his hand on top of hers. “But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Stacy raised an eyebrow. “Is this going somewhere, Chase? We sneak onto a closed beach at sunset, a year after we met? Were you planning this for a while?”

Chase looked over at the sunset. The orb of the sun was almost completely under the waves. “I mean, yeah. Look, you’re gonna have to roll with me for a bit.” He took off his cap, placing it beside him, then slid off the dock and into the water, briefly disappearing under the surface. He stayed down under there for a second. When he popped back up, he threw his shirt, pants, and sandals up onto the dock.

“Whoa, Chase.” Stacy leaned back, pulling her legs back onto the dock. “I know we’ve—well, y’know, but I don’t think I’m up for anything right n—”

“No no no, I’m not asking you to get in the water too,” Chase hurried to say. “I just need to show you something.”

“Um.” Stacy raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound much better.”

“Trust me, it’s not what you’re thinking.” Chase looked back at the sunset, watching as the last hint of sun disappeared. He glanced back at Stacy. “Just don’t freak out.” And he ducked under the water with a splash.

Stacy was left staring at the spot where he disappeared. Left staring for a long time. A long enough time to get worried. She scooted closer to the dock edge, looking down into the water.

Something white and orange splashed out of the water. Stacy yelped, drawing back. Chase burst out of the water, shaking his head and causing drops of water to fly everywhere. He smiled up at her. “Okay, you were saying I’m weird? This is the weirdest part of me.”

“Chase! What—” Stacy cut herself off. Her eyes widened. Chase looked different. There were…there were little orange fins on the side of his head. She gasped. “What the fuck?!”

“Yeah, I…I know this is a shock.” Chase smiled softly. He grabbed the edge of the dock and lifted himself a little bit out of the water. There were more orange fins on his wrists, and white scales across his chest and upper arms. “So…yeah. I’m not exactly…normal.”

Stacy gaped. “You’re a—a—you’re a mermaid?!”

Chase frowned. “Well, no, ‘cause I’m a guy. I’m a merman. Or if you just want to use the gender-neutral term, I’m a merm. But, um. Yeah.”

Stacy stared at him. She wondered if this was some kind of prank, if Chase was wearing some kind of makeup. But no. The fins and scales were real. Her entire world shifted. “I—I didn’t know you were—were real.”

“Well, yeah, we are.” Chase laughed awkwardly. “I guess it makes sense now why my favorite movie is Finding Nemo.” A tail flashed out of the water, orange with white and black.

“But—I—how do you—you were walking,” Stacy stammered. “You went to school. Wait.” Her eyes widened. “Oh my god, there was never any illness, was there?”

“You mean the one that kept me home most of my life and was the reason I couldn’t walk right? No, I-I made that up,” Chase admitted. “There had to be a reason for why I didn’t know anything.”

“How did you—how did you have legs, though?!”

“Well, y’know, I think Hans Christian Andersen must’ve known more than what most people would think,” Chase said. “He got…he got things really right.”

“So you met a sea witch?” Stacy asked.

“I mean, he lives in a lake, but yeah, I guess you could call him a witch.” Chase shrugged. “He’s a friend of mine.” He lifted himself further out of the water. “Hey Stacy. I told you, I saw you at the beach. I wanted to get to know you, but, well, it was impossible to do that when I’m like this.” His tone lowered. “There aren’t a lot of merms left, Stace. We can’t risk humans finding us. For good reason, too. But you seemed so cool and funny and you’re so active and I love how you live life to the fullest, and still really care about people, and you’re a lot smarter than you think, you know—” He shook his head. “I’m getting distracted. Anyway, I wanted to know you. So I went upstream to visit my friend, and ask him if he knew a way I could.”

“He turned you human?” Stacy asked softly.

“Not permanently,” Chase said. “Just for a year and a day. There’s a spell to permanently make the transformation to human, but it’s difficult…and irreversible. He wanted me to be sure. But the designated time period has passed, and the spell’s worn off. I…I have to decide if I want to become human forever.”

Stacy laughed awkwardly. “Well, it seemed like you had a good time. But…do you want to?”

“Actually…” Chase smiled sadly. “I don’t think I would. It’s not as great for me as you think. I love some of the stuff up here, but…you know in the original Little Mermaid, she felt like she was walking on knives all the time? It…it’s a bit like that. It’s not normal for me to walk, Stace. I don’t think I can get used to it. And everything is loud and bright and close together. The only reason I really would want to stay is…is…” Chase reached up, and took Stacy’s hand. “Is if you would stay with me.”

Stacy blinked. “Stay with you? You mean, forever?”

“If you want to, of course,” Chase said. He looked up at her, eyes shining. “But I love you, Stacy. I love your charm, I love your zest for life, I love when your gentle side comes out. I think living on land would be worth it, if it was with you.”

Stacy stared at him, mouth gaping. She didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t lie, she was touched by Chase’s passion. And she loved him too. She loved his sense of humor, his kindness, his determination. But… “Chase, I…”

Chase’s face fell, picking up on her tone. “Do you not…feel…?”

“No, Chase, I love you.” She squeezed his hand. “But I’m seventeen. I-I know I like to do some things people would call ‘rebellious,’ but I know…I know I’m just seventeen. I still live with my mom. I still have to go to college. I can’t…I can’t commit to this. What if we found out we aren’t as good for each other? We’d have to separate, and you’d be left here, on land, where you don’t want to be, constantly hurting. I can’t do that to you, Chase. To either of us.”

Chase’s eyes dulled. The fins on the sides of his head seemed to droop.

Stacy smiled at him. “Hey…tell you what. Let’s meet up again in four or five years. We can meet here, on this beach, and see if anything’s changed.”

Chase bit his lip. He nodded, slowly at first, and then more enthusiastically. “Okay. Four or five years. We’ll meet up on the same day.” He smiled at her. “I’ll wait.”

“I’ll wait, too.” Stacy leaned down. “Chase, can I kiss you?”

“Yes,” he breathed.

She closed the distance, pressing her lips against his. They were wet, but otherwise, felt the same as ever. They lingered for a moment before both pulling away.

Chase smiled at her. “I’ll see you then,” he whispered.

Stacy picked up his cap, placing it on top of his head. “I’ll see you.” She smiled as well.

Chase pulled the cap down over his wet hair, backing away from her. He waved, and ducked underwater. His tail flipped up over the surface, and then he disappeared under the water with barely a splash.


	2. Starlight, Star Bright

“Henrik! Schneep! Hey, I know you’re in there! Come on out!”

Schneep recognized that voice. He debated staying inside and ignoring him, but inevitably he poked his head out from under the rocks. He was greeted by a caudal fin to the face. With a yelp, he withdrew back into the cave entrance, scowling. “You did that on purpose,” he muttered.

Jackie grinned at him. “Actually, no. But it was a perk.” He turned around, swimming back and forth through the open water.

Grumbling, Schneep inched further out of the cave, stopping halfway. “So, what do you need me to patch up now?”

“Oh c’mon, do I really only come visit you because I need you to fix me up?” Jackie whined.

“Yes,” Schneep said curtly.

“Oh.” Jackie momentarily stopped swimming, and then started up again. “Well, I’m sorry, I guess. But, uh…” He laughed awkwardly. “For today…” He held out his arm. It was wrapped in seaweed, which he pulled back. A long gash split down the side.

Schneep sighed. “Alright. Give me a minute.” He pulled back into the cave. A few minutes later, he popped back out, now holding a human-made bag with a red cross on it. He climbed out from under the rocks and onto the sand, tentacles spreading out. “Stop pacing, you anxious lemon.”

“I have to keep swimming,” Jackie whined. “If I don’t swim I diiiiiie!”

“You are a merm who is part shark, not actually a shark.” Schneep rolled his eyes. “It is very different. Now stay still so I can take care of that cut.”

Jackie stopped, though his tail kept swishing back and forth. He let Schneep gently grab his arm and proceed to turn it around as he examined the gash. It didn’t look too deep. But it could easily get infected. Schneep reached inside his bag and pulled out a glass jar, full of a greenish paste. He unscrewed the top and proceeded to start dabbing the paste on the gash. Jackie hissed. “Can we at least go inside while we do this?”

“Sure,” Schneep said, not looking up. “If you can manage to squeeze in.”

Jackie groaned. “This is discrimination. Chase and Jack can get through the entrance!”

“They don’t have dorsal fins.”

“Jack does!”

“They don’t have dorsal fins made of cartilage.”

Jackie rolled his eyes. “Y’know what? Fine. It’s probably tiny and cramped in there.”

Schneep grinned. “I assure you it is not. Only the entrance.”

“Oh come on!”

A few moments later, the cut had been cleaned and covered up, with stretchy white bandages from the human world. Schneep counted himself lucky that he’d found a few human packages discarded on the ocean floor, presumably from a ship passing overhead. He’d quickly found that the packages contained various human medical supplies. While Schneep hated the carelessness of throwing things overboard, he’d been happy to find this particular discarding. Merm medical care was lacking in the “secure bandaging” department. “There. All good?” Schneep asked, backing away.

Jackie flexed his arm, immediately wincing. But he nodded. “Yeah. Thanks, Hen.”

“Is not a problem.” Schneep put the bandages and the jar back in his bag, slinging it over his shoulder.

Jackie suddenly got a glint in his eyes. Before Schneep could comment on it, Jackie darted forward, grabbing Schneep by his wrist. “Come on!” And he turned and darted away, dragging Schneep with him.

“Wh—Jackie!” Schneep pulled against the sudden motion, but Jackie was very, very fast. He ended up clinging to Jackie as he swam. “What are you doing?!”

“I want to show you something!” Jackie laughed. “I mean, hey, I might as well, for all the times you’ve patched me up!”

“You cannot have told me before you decided to go—Jackie, slow down!”

“Nope! Grab hold tighter!”

Schneep yelped as Jackie sped up, wrapping his arms around Jackie’s torso. He realized that they were heading up, the dark waters becoming clearer. Until soon they broke the surface of the waves. Schneep spluttered at the sudden change from water to air, and clung tighter to Jackie.

“Hey, squishy, open your eyes,” Jackie nudged.

“I tell you not to call me that,” Schneep muttered, but he opened his eyes anyway. They’d swum close to a shoreline, which was a surprise. Schneep’s cave was out in the reef, surrounded by open ocean. Jackie was a fast swimmer, but that was impressive. Schneep could see the lights of a human pier, and he instinctively shrunk away. He looked around, searching to see if anything else was around, and while doing so, he looked up. His breath caught in his throat. “Oh…”

“Hmm?” Jackie looked up as well. “Oh, nice night out. Very clear.”

“Beautiful…” Schneep breathed.

“You mean…the stars?”

Schneep nodded. Look at that! So many lights, stark white light glowing against the navy velvet of the sky. They reflected in his wide eyes as he stared.

Jackie tilted his head. “You…you don’t come up to the surface a lot, huh?”

“Never.” Schneep shook his head. “Not since…” he trailed off. Schneep didn’t talk a lot about his life before Jackie knew him. There must be something there. Something that he didn’t discuss for good reason. 

“Well…they are pretty.” Jackie smiled. “But there’s something even better coming up soon.”

“Really?”

“Keep your eyes on the sky if you want, squishy.”

Schneep made an irritated noise. “I told you not to—” He suddenly stopped. There was a strange whistling sound. He looked toward the shoreline, and the cluster of human lights. Something was sailing up into the sky. And then, there was a burst of red light, sparks flying in all directions. The burst of light was followed by a loud BANG! Schneep gasped.

“They’re called fireworks,” Jackie explained, laughing with pure joy. “They do this every week this season.”

“Oh…” Schneep watched as another one burst, this one green, and more circular. “Perhaps, I…I would like to see this again.”

“It’s fun, isn’t it? Almost always a little different.” He looked over at Schneep. “I can bring you whenever you want, you know. You need to get out of the reef more.”

Schneep rolled his eyes. “Well at least I am not out being reckless and getting cut up by rocks.”

“I take offense to that.”

“Good.”

They both burst into fits of giggles.

The fireworks shot high in the sky, cascades of bright white followed by bursts of red and pink, green and blue. The humans on the shore watched happily, unaware of the two merms treading water, watching the show with wide eyes.


	3. The Trench

Swimming in the open ocean had its fair share of dangers. Jack didn’t go out there often for that reason. He liked to stick close to the shoreline, where the water was warm. But every so often, he decided to break up routine and go explore.

“Hey, Sam, be careful!” Jack laughed as he watched the little discus attempt to do a flip in the water. Sam shook herself, then swam back to Jack and bumped against his chest. He smiled down at her. “You’re a tiny little fish in the middle of the open ocean, you could get lost.”

Sam ducked down, pouting. She then proceeded to swim away as fast as she possibly could—which was not that fast. Jack chuckled, easily keeping pace.

The currents suddenly shifted. Jack stopped, looking around. They were in the middle of a mostly empty spot, with some large rocks. There weren’t a lot of fish around, just a school of silvery ones passing by. And in the distance, there was something…something that was coming closer. Jack squinted. Then his eyes widened. “Sam, we gotta get out of here!”

Sam looked at him and tilted to the side, puzzled.

“Giant squid coming!” Jack darted to the ocean floor. Giant squid—there weren’t a lot of them, but there were enough. Some of them got big enough to prey on seals—or merms, if they wanted.

Jack yanked up a few strands of seaweed, twisting them together. He swam back up to where Sam was. “Get in the bag!” He said, and she quickly swam inside. Once he was sure she was secure, he started swimming as fast as he could, away from the squid.

But when he glanced over his shoulder, it was closer. He tried to go faster, and it was still closer. He looked around. Come on, come on, there had to be a safe place to hide somewhere. Rocks? Not much cover. And then he spotted a crack in the ocean floor. He dived down, tail pumping hard, and swam right into the trench.

He stopped in the trench, hiding beneath a spot where the opening created an overhang. His gills working hard, he looked up as the mass of pale tentacles swam right overhead, blocking out the sunlight. It seemed to pass by forever. When it was gone, he slumped in relief. “Alright, I think we should wait a bit longer, Sam, just in case it saw us.” He patted the makeshift seaweed bag. And didn’t feel Sam inside.

His heart stopped. He pulled up the bag, looking inside. There was no tiny discus inside. “Sam?” He looked around for a speck of bright green. “Sam?!” Then he looked down, just in time to see something small disappearing into the shadows of the trench.

Oh no no no no, this was bad. Sam was aquarium-bred, she had no idea how to survive on her own. The only reason she was out here was because some careless human, bored of pet fish, had dumped their school of pet discuses into the ocean, thinking they would be okay. But they weren’t. By the time Jack found Sam, she was the only one still alive. He had to take care of her!

“Sam, stop! Stay there, I’ll come get you!” He dived down deeper.

The seaweed above was bioluminescent, as he found when he swam deeper into darkness and his makeshift bag started glowing. The shadows of the trench grew deeper, and darker. He looked back up and he saw the opening as a thin blue line overhead. A few moments later, he looked back up again and couldn’t see anything but pitch-black water. He shivered, sticking close to the trench wall. “Sam? Sam?” He called. “Sam, where are you? Sam, come here!”

After what felt like forever, something moved in his bubble of light created by the glowing seaweed. Sam was huddling against the wall. “Sam!” He huddled around her in turn, looking over her to see if there was any damage. There was not. He sighed in relief. “Why’d you swim down? Look at this, it’s dark! Who knows what’s down here!”

Sam swum close to Jack. He could tell she was shaking.

“I guess the squid really scared you, huh? Well, don’t worry. It’s gone now. Just don’t do it again.” Jack held open the bag again, and she swam inside. “Let’s get out of here.”

He turned, and began swimming back up. Or at least…he hoped it was up. It was hard to tell, with there being darkness everywhere. He pulled off a bit of the seaweed and dropped it, watching it float down. Yep, he was headed in the right direction, there was gravity.

The piece of seaweed drifted downward, lighting up the trench wall as it went. It passed by a small opening, lighting it up briefly. Jack watched it fall. But then there was movement. A hand darted out from the opening in the trench wall, grabbing the seaweed as it floated past. A hand tipped with claws.

Jack froze. His eyes were glued in place as another hand came out of the opening. Each hand followed by arms. They grabbed the rock of the trench wall, and a merm pulled himself out of the opening. The merm looked at the seaweed he was holding, and then looked up. Jack felt the glowing green eyes land on him.

Jack took off, swimming upward as fast as he could. Behind him he heard a snarl, and the currents shifted as the merm followed him. He didn’t dare look behind him. He clutched Sam in the bag to his chest and just kept swimming, tail propelling him upward. There were more snarls and growls behind him. They were getting closer. He pushed as hard as he could. There was light at the top, he could see it! He was almost there! Just keep going up, up, up—

He burst out of the trench and into the open ocean. For a moment, he felt relief. And then something grabbed the end of his tail. He yelled, and looked down.

It was the merm—an eel, he recognized now. An eel with a green tint to his skin and hair, dark tail cutting through the water. He was holding his tail. The eel smiled, and his eyes glowed brighter. Sudden bright, crackling light—electricity, Jack realized—raced up along the eel’s arms and through his hands, into Jack’s tail. Jack screamed, and flailed wildly, somehow managing to shake off the eel’s grip. He went tumbling through the water for a while before landing on the ocean floor, sending up a cloud of sand. He blinked through the particles, looking back at the trench in fear.

The eel merm smiled, and seemed to wave at him. And then he ducked back into the trench.

Jack laid down on the ocean floor, feeling stunned. His tail was throbbing with the aftermath of the shock. He might have to go talk to Schneep about that.

What…what had that eel wanted?

Sam managed to swim out of the bag, and darted around to hover in front of Jack’s face. She got a little closer, stopping a little ways away from Jack’s nose, letting her fins tickle his skin. He laughed, a wheezing sound. “I think we should head home, Sam,” he said. “That’s enough excitement for today.”


	4. The Lake Monster

Marvin didn’t like to hang out near the lake’s shore. And now he was reminded why.

He peeked out of the water, his eyes hovering over the surface. It was evening, and a group of teenagers had lit a bonfire on the sandy beach. He could hear them shouting over the water, loud music playing from a small device hooked up to two larger devices he’d heard called “speakers.” As he watched, one of them crushed a can under their foot and tossed it into the water.

“Damn it,” he muttered, diving back under. He picked up the crushed can and swam back up, hurling it back towards the shore where it landed on the sand. None of the teenagers seemed to notice.

Marvin scowled, turning around and diving down to the bottom. The ends of his pectoral fins brushed against the sand and rocks. He could go back down to the depths and hoped they went away. The lake was deep, deep enough that any noise caused by the teenagers would fade away. But the lake was his. It was his, and he hated anything being in there that he didn’t know about. Especially if those things were harmful. He checked everyday for anything odd, stopping by the mouths of the two rivers that fed into the lake and the mouth of the river that flowed out. Just to see if there was anything new.

There was a slight splash as a half-empty plastic bag hit the lake, floating on the surface and spilling out yellow bits of food. Marvin glared at the offending bag, swimming up to gather together the chips and shove them back in the bag. He crumpled the bag back up and threw it back at the shore. Fine. These guys wanted to mess with his lake, he’d show them. He just had to make a quick stop.

In the deepest center of the lake, there was a formation of rocks, slabs set up in a crude formation of walls and a roof, surrounded by a forest of seaweed. Marvin swam inside. The interior was lit up by glowing stars, the remains of sea stars that drifted upstream, enchanted to glow various colors. Marvin sorted through his things, and picked out a stone, smooth except for symbols carved on it. He grinned, and swam back up to the surface, riding the currents close to the shore.

The teenagers were still playing loud music, somehow having grown more rowdy and loud. He glared, and turned the fist-sized stone over in his hands. He muttered a few words, and the stone and his eyes lit up, seafoam green. The water around him swirled, glowing the same shade. And then a stream of water shot from the lake, flying over to the shore and hitting one of the teenagers square in the back of the head.

Marvin laughed as he watched the teen spin around in confusion, shouting at the others. He repeated the whispered phrase, and another stream of water hit another teen in the leg. That one backed up, yelling at the first. He repeated this a few more times, but to his surprise, the group didn’t seem much inclined to leave. They just seemed confused.

Well, that wouldn’t do. Marvin swam a bit closer to the shore, slinking down to a point where the water just barely covered him while he lay on the lake floor. He took a deep breath, clutching the stone closer. And he started to chant.

The water around him started to glow, and the glow spread out along the shoreline, until the waves lapping at the sand were all luminescent. The group of teens pointed at it and shouted some more. They seemed more fascinated than anything, and a few crept closer in awe. Until the water suddenly surged up onto the shore, wrapping around the ankles of the nearest teen. That one yelled and stumbled back. “It’s hot!” they shouted.

Indeed it was. Steam was starting to rise from the glowing water, which continued onto the shore. A few other teens stuck their hand in it, only to jerk it back and also yell that the water was hot. The final straw came when the waves hit the speakers and the small device. One of the teens screamed, and scooped up the device and the speakers. The loud music died, and the teens slowly backed up, then turned and left, slinking inland.

Marvin stopped chanting, and the water stopped glowing. It cooled down, and retreated to its normal position. There. No more young humans throwing stuff in his lake. But it felt like he’d almost depleted this power stone. With a flick of his tail, he turned around and headed home.

He placed the power stone on a rock slab, among other round rocks carved with symbols. They were all perfectly smooth, though they varied in shape and size. He went about rummaging through the rest of his stuff, making sure no fish had wandered inside and started to mess with it. No, his spells were still there, symbols dyed on preserved seaweed and carved into thin stone slabs. There were no fish in his sleeping area, hiding among the algae and seaweed. His bowls and cauldron hadn’t been moved, and neither had the jars containing his ingredients. His mask, made of a thin, rough-hewn ceramic, was still in its place.

Marvin sighed, satisfied. Everything was as it should be. Now he could finally go to sleep. He swam over to the cluster of various lake plants that served as his sleeping area, curling up on the lake bed. Not too bad a day, he supposed, in the end.


	5. Caught

Boats were a normal thing in the river. Jameson was used to them. They weren’t too hard to avoid; all he had to do was bury himself in the sand and wait until he could no longer feel them affecting the currents.

But this was a different sort of boat. For one thing, it was moving a lot faster than the others. He felt the currents only a couple minutes before it actually arrived. For another, the boat was dragging something behind it. Something that spanned the entire length of the river. Jameson paused where he was, squinting at the thing the boat was dragging. Then he snapped out of it, shaking himself. He had to hide! The boat was coming quick! It was already twenty feet away! He dived to the sand along the river bottom, starting to wriggle underneath.

Something rammed into his side.

Jameson was thrown away from the riverbed, flung into the water just before something else hit him. He attacked instinctively. His tail lashed out at the thing—what was it? It was long and thin and—and there were lots of them. There was sand in the water, clouding his vision. The things in the water were dark strands, but he couldn’t see much beyond that.

The thing hit him again. What was it? The strands? Well no matter what, he had to get out of here! Jameson dove downwards, back towards the riverbed, hands scrabbling at the grit of the sand. Then a metal bar dragged across the bed, breaking his grip. The strands enveloped him. He yelped in surprise, pushing at the strands, which he was realizing were woven together. He managed to escape the clutches of the—it was a net! The boat was dragging a net behind it!

His heart froze, then when its pulse resumed it pounded twice as fast. He switched tactics. The riverbed was no longer safe, he had to outrun the net. He waved his tail as hard as he possibly could, arms and wings pushing at the water as he swam, managing to momentarily escape its clutches. But he wasn’t fast. The reprieve only lasted half a minute before the net, attached to the speeding boat, caught up again. The woven mesh wrapped around him. He yelped. His tail thrashed, tangling itself in the strands even further no matter how he tried.

Jameson’s mind was racing. Okay, he couldn’t outrun it or hide from it. Maybe he could break free by force. He started pulling at the knots. He bit at the strands with gnashing teeth. His tail kept thrashing, trying to free itself or tear through. Rip through the net! Rip through it! Please!

The boat didn’t seem bothered by the added weight in the net. It kept speeding along. And as it drove through the river waves, Jameson found himself pulled with it. He kept struggling, biting and tearing at the net, but every effort just tangled him further as he tumbled through the waves left in the boat’s wake. Soon he lost track of where he was or what he was doing. The water was clouded with sand and bubbles, the currents tossing him about and disorienting him further. All he knew was that he had to get out, he had to! The net was wrapping tight around him, tight around his tail, tight around his arms and wings, tight around his neck. But it was too much, too much, too much. He stopped thrashing and let the net carry him wherever it wanted.

When the boat finally slowed, he tried to resume his struggles. But he was too tangled now. The net wrapped around his torso, pinning his wings and arms. His tail was folded in on itself, useless for swimming. And there was a strand around his neck that was uncomfortably strained. He paused, breathing heavily in the water.

And then the strands of the net started pulling taunt. Jameson’s eyes widened and he tried to wriggle free once more, to no avail. The net around his throat was pulling tighter, painfully tighter.

The net hauled him out of the river. The moment he broke the surface, he started gasping. He couldn’t breathe! That wasn’t right, air and water were the same to him, he should be able to adjust to air. No, it was the net. The strand wound around his neck was crushing his windpipe. And there was nothing he could do about it, he was too tangled in the mesh.

Jameson landed on something solid. The pressure from the net loosened, though he was still knotted up in it, and the strand around his neck was still too tight. He lay limp, gasping for breath. He squeezed his eyes shut against the bright, unfiltered sunlight.

“What is it?”

“I dunno, man.”

“It looks a bit like a giant ray.”

“Like a stingray? Are those in this river?”

“I dunno, man.”

“Stop saying ‘I dunno,’ we get it, you’re a dumbass.”

“Hey!”

Three voices. They were speaking…oh, he didn’t know the name of the language, but it was one of the human ones. Of course it was. Jameson cracked open his eyelids a bit, making out three human figures. If he had to guess, he’d say they were two men and one woman, according to the timber of their voices. His eyes adjusted slowly to the new light. Once he could see enough, he looked around. He must be on the boat. With the humans. His eyes snapped open fully, alarmed. He tried thrashing about again. His tail managed to pull free a bit, but his arms and wings were still wrapped up.

“Whoa, hey, watch out!” One of the human men backed up, pushing the other one behind him. But the human woman took a step closer. “Cythia, what’re you doing?”

“It has a face,” the human woman said.

“You mean, like, in the patterns?” The other human man asked.

“No, I mean right here.” The woman reached forward, brushing wet strands of hair out of Jameson’s face. His eyes darted up to her face, narrowing. She gasped softly. “Oh my god…” And she backed up, eyes scanning the strange “fish” they’d caught in their nets. “Guys…you’re not gonna believe this. But I think we just caught a mermaid.”

The two men inched closer, watching Jameson squirm on the deck of their boat. “Holy shit!” One said. “Holy fucking shit! You’re right!”

The other one looked confused. “Does it have a mustache?”

The woman looked excited. “Guys, this is much bigger than anything else we were looking to find. Imagine what we could do with this!”

“Hmm…” The first man grinned. “Which company do you think would pay the most for this?”

Fear surged through Jameson’s veins, ice-cold. No no no no no—

“Great idea, Zach, but I have a better one.” The woman rubbed her hands gleefully. “If we do that, we get just a one-time payment. We could milk this. Not just fortune, but fame, too.”

The second man grunted. “If it doesn’t roll off the side.”

Jameson intensified his efforts to get away at that. Come on, it couldn’t be that far!

“Wh—what?!” The woman shrieked.

“I got it.” The second man stalked closer. Jameson glared at him. He tried to shout out a warning, even if they couldn’t speak the language it might get the point across—but all that came out was a raspy hissing sound. Pain surged in his throat. The human didn’t seem deterred. He reached out—

In a panic, Jameson thrashed his tail, hitting the man in the arm. He cried out and backed out. “It hit me!” The man said, cradling his arm close. “Did…did it stab me or something?”

“It’s part stingray, Kevin, you absolute moron,” the other man said, rolling his eyes. “It stung you, duh. Now you can look forward to a bunch of puking and diarrhea, not to mention more pain.”

“Oh.”

“Here, I have a better idea. Cynth, can you open the cooler? It’s built in, and pretty big.”

The woman disappeared from view. The first man bent over, starting to fiddle with something. The net pulled taunt again. Jameson cried out, or tried to, and struggled further. But the net dragged him across the deck of the boat. No, it wasn’t the net. It was the two human men, who were using the net to pull him further onto the boat. He thrashed, trying to get free. If he could just get a hand free he could grab onto something—

Too late. He was rolled into a rectangular opening in the deck of the boat, landing with a splash in a cramped compartment full of chill water. He looked up, catching a glimpse of the three humans before the lid of the compartment swung shut. He heard the sound of something being dragged over it.

Jameson tried to scream at them to let him out, but nothing happened. Only a flare of pain in his throat. He banged against the sides of the compartment with his tail and torso, his arms still tangled in the net. But the walls were solid. There was nothing he could do.

After a while, he stopped. He was stuck. Maybe in the future there would be a way out, but right now? He was caught in the humans’ net.


	6. Outside the Anemone

Chase was vaguely aware of someone calling his name. He sighed, burying his face in his arms. He wanted to go back to sleep. And, you know, definitely not talk to anyone.

“Ow!”

That got his attention. He lifted his head, peering out from between the anemone’s tentacles. “Jack? What’re you doing?”

Jack was shaking his hand, Sam hovering nearby. He winced. “Checking up on you. You weren’t answering so I tried to see if you were still inside.”

“…dude.” Chase rolled his eyes. “You got stung, didn’t you?”

Jack hesitated. “Maybe.” At Chase’s sigh, he started to protest. “You’re alright in it! I thought I would be, too! Like, maybe it was a broken anemone or something.”

“Yeah, no. If anything, it’s even better at stinging ‘cause it’s so big.” Chase stretched out, nestling back inside the web of pink strands. “You might want to get that checked out. But I’m a clowny boy, I’m fine.”

“Dammit,” Jack muttered, now rubbing the spot where the anemone stung him. “Anyway, how are you?”

Chase didn’t answer. He sat his head back down on his folded arms.

Jack swam as close to the anemone as he felt safe to, Sam swimming around his head. “Still not there, then?”

“Shut up, Jack,” Chase muttered.

Jack opened his mouth to say something else, but decided against whatever he had planned. He settled down on the sea floor next to the anemone. “I’m just…it’s been a while, right? Maybe she forgot.”

“I know she might’ve forgot, Jack!” Chase snapped. “I know this is starting to get a little weird! I know I might be taking this too far! You don’t need to tell me I’m horrible and weird, I already know that!”

“I wasn’t about to say any of that, dude.” Jack kept his tone calm and assuring. “Look, it was a very important time to you, and she was very important, too. And then…well, it didn’t really get resolved, did it?”

Chase sighed, curling in on himself. They’d promised four or five years later. She didn’t show up after four, so he thought maybe she would at five. Then he thought, maybe she’d just lost track of the year, better go just in case. Then he thought, maybe she was just busy, better go just in case. And now, he was perfectly aware that it was getting ridiculous. But he couldn’t seem to stop. Maybe it was just habit now, maybe he just…wanted something to go right. Anything.

“I know things kind of suck, but you’ve been in there all day,” Jack said gently. “That’s probably not good for you. I just wanted to see if you were okay.”

Good question. But Chase wasn’t sure that Jack wanted the honest answer. “I’m fine, just tired.”

“Really?” Unfortunately for Chase, it seemed like Jack wasn’t buying it. He lifted off the floor, hovering over the top of the anemone. “Well, I’m guessing you don’t want to go out, then? Maybe chill in the lagoon? Go to the reefs? Have you eaten anything yet? We could pick something up at the kelp forests.”

“I ate something,” Chase lied. “I just want to relax now.”

“Hmm.” Jack’s eyes narrowed. “Alright. Hang on, I’ll be right back. Sam, stay here.” He turned and swam away.

Chase tried not to look too hurt at that. Well, he’d definitely be back at least. He wouldn’t leave Sam alone. Chase buried his head in the anemone’s tentacles. Fine, then. He wanted to be alone, anyway.

Some time later, something slapped against the back of Chase’s head. Startled, he looked up to see some kelp slowly drifting away. And Jack was back, along with someone else. “Chase, I swear to gods that if you do not eat anything when I am here, I am going to shove it down your throat,” Schneep said threateningly.

Chase grabbed the kelp before it floated out of range. “Good luck getting close enough to do that,” he said.

“I can get past that, do not underestimate me,” Schneep warned. “Maybe I’ll find a stick and poke you until you get out.”

“Good luck with that, too.” Chase couldn’t help but smile. “You know I don’t just eat kelp, right?”

Jack floated into view, picking up Sam along the way. “Yeah, well. We didn’t feel like digging up worms.”

“Ew, no.” Chase made a face. “Don’t confuse me with my clowny brethren.”

Jack laughed. “Anyway, you eat that. And Schneep and I are gonna hang out out here and talk.”

“Talk, yes. I also need to take care of that sting.” Schneep started digging in his bag, the human-made one with a red cross. “Because you are an idiot, Jack.”

“Hey!” Jack protested.

“You know it, you are almost as likely to get hurt as Jackie, and that is saying something.” Schneep rolled his eyes. “And you still will not tell me about that burn you had earlier.”

“I can do that now,” Jack suggested. He looked at Chase. “Sam and I had a scare two weeks ago, you know. It started with a giant squid, and ended with lightning.”

“Do tell how that happened,” Schneep said coolly. “Did you swim upstream while Marvin was busy practicing?”

“Nah, we were in the open ocean, one of the shallower areas but there was this gigantic trench. It could’ve gone down ten thousand meters and we’d have no idea, it was so freaking dark.”

Chase stared up at the waves above as Jack went on about this adventure he and Sam went on. He watched the pink anemone wave in the currents around him as Schneep interjected Jack’s story with comments about how he should’ve known better, and Jack protested. A smile pulled at his lips.

Maybe he didn’t want to be alone after all.


	7. The Rescuer

Jackie could tell something was wrong from here. He was approaching one of the few merm settlements—or at least, one of the few merm settlements that was home to more than ten people. This particular group often migrated, but they set up permanent places of residence to stop by. According to their patterns, they should be here this time of year…but he couldn’t see anyone. He should be able to see some of them swimming about from here. But there was nobody.

He approached the settlement cautiously. He could see the houses built into the sand, mud bricks stacked in cylindrical buildings. Except…the buildings were not as neat as they’d previously been. Walls were shattered, some houses collapsed in on themselves. Neat rows of coral gardens were torn up, troughs plowed in the sea floor. Jackie stops on the outskirts, gaping at the damage.

What happened here? It couldn’t have been humans; they were nearly a thousand meters below the surface, in the area where it was twilight all the time. And in the middle of the ocean, too, no land even in sight. There was no way humans would come down here. Predators? He wasn’t aware of any in the area, or at least none that were a threat to this particular kind of merm. Jackie shook his head, swimming into the settlement. He could see easily this far down, and his eyes scanned the ruins.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Jackie called. He peered inside the doorway of one of the mostly-intact houses. His eyes widened. In the shadows of the building, he could see two merms floating, lifeless in the water. “Holy shit…”

He swam across the way to another house. Inside, a similar sight. This time, he went into the building, looking over the bodies. One of them was a merm from this pod, easily identifiable since they were of the same merm species as the rest. The other…Jackie swam a bit closer. She looked like a barracuda, perhaps. What was she doing here? Both of them had injuries, presumably their causes of death.

Jackie examined a couple more buildings, finding both merms from this pod and barracuda merms. What was this…? Was this some sort of territory dispute? Eels weren’t common to this environment, though…

There was a small noise nearby. Jackie tensed, twirling around to look at it. Silence. And then another small noise. He saw the remains of a collapsed house start to shift. Quickly, he swam over. “Hello? Can you hear me?”

The rubble started to shift more. He could make out a tiny form somewhere inside.

“Hang on, I’ll get you out there!” Jackie started pulling at the rubble, lifting bricks and throwing them through the water. Until eventually he uncovered a tiny mermaid. Just a child, judging by the size and gray tail, as opposed to the spots of the adults. The mergirl blinked up at him, then flinched and shrank back. “Hey. It’s okay,” Jackie said, keeping his voice soothing. “I’m here to help. Your tail is still stuck. I’m going to get it free, okay?” He waited for the mergirl to nod, and then slowly swam around her, lifting up a long support, freeing her tail. She wiggled forward into the open, and he dropped it. He smiled, keeping his mouth closed so she wouldn’t see his sharp teeth and freak out. “You okay?”

The mergirl nodded. She was shaking, her eyes wide as she looked around the ruined settlement.

“What’s your name?” Jackie asked gently.

“My…my n-name is Mairéad,” she said softly, voice trembling.

“Mairéad…that’s a pretty name,” Jackie said softly.

She smiled a bit. “Th…thanks.”

“Do you know what happened, Mairéad?” Jackie said, looking around. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, though.”

Mairéad looked around as well, shaking her head. “My…my mam told me to go inside. She said things were going to get dangerous. Th..there were noises. Fighting. I looked outside, and there were strange merms…S-some of them put green glass things in the brick cracks, a-and then I went to sleep.” She hugged herself. “A-and when I woke up, I heard two of the strange merms. They were shouting at each other, and then o-one of them told the other to go away forever. And I hided, and when I thought they were gone, I-I tried to leave, but I was stuck…” She was taking in big gulps of water, tears starting to form in her eyes.

“Hey, hey…” Jackie slowly inched closer. “I know, that must’ve been really scary. But they’re gone now. They can’t do anything anymore.” He paused. “Do you want a hug?”

Mairéad nodded, and barrelled into Jackie’s chest. He oofed at the sudden force, but wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “Can…wh-where is my mam?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” Jackie said. “She might’ve swam away.” He doubted it, but he wasn’t about to say so. “Hey. I know some people nearby who could help you. Would you like me to take you to them?” After a moment, Mairéad nodded. And Jackie nodded back. “Alright, then. They’re another pod, they’re some ways away. We have to swim a while to get there, are you okay with that?”

The small mergirl nodded again, pulling away. “I’m a good swimmer.”

“Really? That’s great.” Jackie gently took her hand. “Come on, I’ll show you the way.”

They began swimming.


	8. Washed Up

Marvin hovered near the water surface as he swam around the lake perimeter. The sun was warm on his back as he checked for anything new. Nothing so far. But he was coming up on one of the rivers that flowed into the lake. It would sometimes bring new flotsam with the current.

At first, that’s what he thought this new thing was: a bit of flotsam. Some kind of fabric, he guessed when he saw it at the bottom of the lake, right where it meant the riverbed. He sighed, diving down to where the lump was on the floor. But as he got closer, he realized his first guess wasn’t exactly accurate. This thing looked a little bit more…organic. He paused. Was…was that a tail?

Marvin closed the distance, swimming more slowly now. Yes, it was a tail. It was a merm. Apparently having come from one of the rivers that fed into the lake. That was odd enough by itself. Usually merms came in from the sea, swimming upstream through the river that flowed out of the lake. He approached with caution. “Hello?”

The lump at the bottom of the lake suddenly flailed. Marvin backed up instinctively to avoid the lashing tail. After a few moments, the flailing calmed, and the new merm—a stingray, by the looks of it—stared up at Marvin with wide eyes. 

“Um…hi.” Marvin waved a bit, fins drifting in the current caused by the motion. “Who are you?”

The stingray shook his head. He crouched against the lake floor, tail swishing from side to side. His eyes were fixed on Marvin, wary. 

“Okay, I’ll start then.” Marvin tried inching closer. Very, very, slowly. But the stingray tensed, so he stopped. “My name’s Marvin. Welcome to my lake. The humans call it Lough Baintrie.” The stingray flinched, lowering closer to the sandy floor. “Okay, okay, um…are you alright? Anything I can help you with? I’m no medic, but I’ve got some magic aides, if you need be.”

The stingray raised his head a bit. And then Marvin noticed it. There was a bit of rope around the stingray’s neck, tied tightly, knotted in the back. The end was frayed, as if it had been cut. “Um…that doesn’t look good,” Marvin commented. “The, uh…” Marvin gestured at his own neck. “You need any help with that?”

There still wasn’t an answer from the stingray. He narrowed his eyes, tensing up. But before he could do anything, the currents shifted. The stingray’s eyes widened, and he turned to look behind him, down the river. Marvin looked as well.

Somewhere in the distance, there was a shadow on the water. A boat.

Suddenly, the stingray surged forward, grabbing Marvin’s arm. Marvin yelped as the grabbing motion bunched up some of his fin. He glared down at the stingray, but his sharp comment drained away as he saw the expression on the merm’s face. Wide eyes, suddenly pale—he knew enough to identify signs of fear. Marvin softened. “Is it the boat?”

The stingray nodded.

“Alright, if we go deep enough, they won’t be able to find us. You can come with me, if you want,” Marvin offered.

Another nod.

“C’mon, then.” Marvin adjusted the stingray’s grip so the two of them were holding hands. Then he started swimming toward the center of the lake, guiding the stingray with him.

The lake was fifty meters at its deepest. As they went further down, the waters became colder. The stingray drew close, shivering. Marvin flashed a smile, trying to be reassuring. “It gets better. There’s a warm spring at the bottom.” And as they got closer to the bottom, it did start to warm up, though the waters grew darker. Until Marvin finally guided the stingray to his little house at the very bottom. “It’s not much, but it’s home. Oh! Hold on a second!” Marvin swam around the wide room, looking through the various stuff he had stored. He found a spare piece of preserved kelp, as well as a stylus that could be used to write. He handed these both to the stingray, who’d floated to the floor of the lake, lying down. “Here,” Marvin said. “I guess you don’t want to talk? Or maybe can’t—either way, you can write down your name for me.”

The stingray hesitated, then took the writing devices. He tested them out first, finding that the stylus would leak a black dye when it was pressed down hard enough. He then started writing, the letters large and janky. Once he was done, he showed it to Marvin: _My name is Jameson._

“Jameson, huh?” Marvin nodded. “Nice to meet you. You need anything? Like…I dunno, help or something?”

Jameson hesitated. He looked upwards, as if he could see all the way to the lake surface. He scribbled down something else. _Will the humans find us?_

Marvin chuckled. “We’re down too far. I don’t think they even have anchors that hit the bottom of this lake.” He stopped. Something had occurred to him, and a smile spread across his face. “But if you’re still nervous, I have something that could convince them to leave faster. Stay right here.” He turned and swam out of the house.

Jameson stared after him, confused. But while he was out, Jameson looked around the small stone walls. It…actually wasn’t that small, but it still felt tiny. But cozy, with the collections of magical items and various cool things Marvin had found and decided to keep. The glowing sea stars felt welcoming. After a while, Jameson’s eyes landed on something on one of the rock shelves. A blade, made of sea glass. Strange that it would be here, far from the beach. But it would do. Jameson quickly shot over and grabbed it before retreating to his spot on the floor. A few moments of careful sawing later, and he managed to cut through the rope around his neck with minimal damage, just in time for Marvin to return.

“Hey!” Marvin was pushing something along the lake bed, something large and round. He grunted, rolling it into the house. A large, almost perfectly smooth stone, bigger than a basketball, its gray surface carved with runic symbols. Marvin grinned, tail flicking excitedly as he grabbed his mask from a nearby shelf. “I’ve been waiting for a long time to use this.” He pulled the mask on. “So many nights storing energy in this thing. You cool with driving these guys away?”

Jameson inched closer, curious. Upon hearing Marvin’s question, he nodded.

“Alright!” Marvin dropped to the lake bed, wrapping both arms around the power stone. He took a deep breath, and his eyes started to glow. Slowly, the stone started to glow as well.

Up on the surface, in the sky above, the already cloudy day started to grow darker. Gray rain started to fall. Suddenly, thunder rumbled. Astonishingly quickly, the surface of the lake became choppy, throwing the one boat on the surface about, tossing it like a children’s toy in a bath.

Back in the depths, Marvin sighed. His eyes faded to normal, though the stone continued glowing, and he drifted to the lake floor. “That can run on its own energy for…I believe it’s one-sixty-nine minutes.” He smiled tiredly. “Even if the storm doesn’t drive them away by then, they’ll certainly be in no condition to search the lake.”

Jameson’s eyes were wide. He scooted a little closer to Marvin, creeping across the sandy floor. He grabbed the writing utensils, and asked, _Why did you do that?_

Marvin shrugged. “Why not? I’ve always kind of wanted to. This seemed like a good time.” He smiled. “Besides, if you freaked out upon seeing them, there’s probably a reason for it.”

Jameson rubbed his neck, and nodded, shadows in his eyes.

“Where are you from?” Marvin asked. “Do you…want to go back there?”

 _I…don’t think I should,_ Jameson said.

“That’s fine. You can stay for as long as you want. If you still can’t talk, we can figure out a way for you to communicate without it.”

Jameson stared at this other merm, the angelfish who lived alone in this lake. He had no reason to be so kind to him, yet…he was. As if it wasn’t any trouble at all. After a moment, Jameson smiled at him. _I think that would be very nice_.


	9. Hunter's Moon

Nighttime in the ocean was dark. The waters were pitch-black, except for the seaweed that glowed on the bottom. A school of large silvery fish floated through the midnight waters, passing over a deep crack in the sandy ocean floor.

A hand darted out from the trench, grabbing one of the fish from the school. The rest of the school scattered as a merm shot out of the trench, managing to snag a second fish with his claws before they all swam away. The merm snarled. Electricity raced along his tail, curling over his back and down his arms, shocking his prey. The fish stopped struggling, now stunned. The eel retreated back into the trench, proceeding to tear apart the fish with his claws and teeth.

A few moments later, the eel returned to the open ocean, though he stayed close to the floor. He blinked glowing eyes, and started off, heading in a specific direction.

An hour later, the eel poked its head above the water, then immediately ducked back down. After a few moments more, he peeked out again, squinting. Even the moonlight hurt his eyes. But he could tell the shoreline was close by. He felt it, sending out electric pulses that reflected off objects, returning to him with information on their positions. And now, he had visual confirmation. He disappeared back under the water, swimming closer to the shore.

There was a group of humans on the beach. He popped back out of the water, seeing them. Sitting in chairs around a fire. What were they doing? He could tell they were talking, but what about?

It didn’t matter. He wasn’t here for them. He went back underneath, swimming along the shoreline, following its curve. Soon the soft sand became rocky, and the ground rose up into a series of cliffs. It was there that he felt it. A small cave at the base of the cliffs, underneath the surface of the water. He felt around the edges of the entrance, and then slipped inside.

There was another merm here. One of the bigger ones, must’ve been over eight feet long. But they were sleeping, their back facing the cave entrance as they lied on the ground. The eel grinned, and pounced.

But the other merm wasn’t as asleep as they’d appeared. The moment the eel attacked, they jolted alert, and suddenly there were claws flying. For a moment the two of them tossed through the water until they managed to push each other away, now at opposite ends of the underwater cave.

“What’re you doing?!” The other merm demanded, gills working hard.

The eel growled. “You…you come into my territory, hunt my prey, and you ask me what I’m doing?!” He laughed. “As if it’s not obvious?!”

“We don’t have to fight about it.” The other merm tensed, not lowering their guard. “I’m sure—”

“A barracuda that doesn’t want to fight,” the eel said scornfully. “Oh, are you the one that got banished from the rest of its tribe? Because you couldn’t handle the hunt?”

“What they were doing wasn’t hunting, I couldn’t stand it!”

“Weak.” The eel glared scornfully down at the other merm. “The sea will eat you up. If I don’t first.” A smile twisted across his face.

The other merm realized they weren’t getting out of this without a fight. They growled, baring their numerous sharp teeth. “Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Anti, but you won’t live long enough to use it.” And Anti darted forward.

For a moment, the two of them seemed evenly matched. But just for a moment. Soon Anti managed to wrap his tail around the other merm’s, his arms pinning theirs to their side. And his eyes started to glow brighter. Electricity ran along his tail, heading up to the rest of his body. It grew in intensity, lighting up the entirety of the cave. The other merm screamed.

And only a few minutes later, Anti was back outside of the beach. Trying to watch the group of humans without looking directly at the fire light. One of them was holding something in their arms, some sort of instrument. They were strumming it, and singing. Some of the other humans were singing along, some were groaning and shoving each other…but still smiling.

Why were they doing that?

For a moment, Anti considered throwing himself out of the water, climbing on land to tear these humans apart. Their smiles were making him angry, angry, and he didn’t know why, but he wanted them gone. But then he shook his head. Bad idea, he’d have to drag himself back into the water before he dried up. And they…they’d probably be gone, soon. It wasn’t worth the effort. And they were far away. It wasn’t like they’d be going straight down into his trench, not like that stupid green merm he’d seen a month ago. And that merm had immediately fled, too, so it…it wasn’t like there was any harm done.

But why were they doing this? Why were they happy?

Anti stayed to watch them. They…they looked like they were having fun. They looked like they weren’t worried or mad about anything. That was…that was…he couldn’t find a word for it. Interesting? No, something…heavier. Something that weighed down his chest.

He watched them until they left, and then he turned back, returning to the dark depths down below.


	10. Beach Day

The boardwalk was wildly busy that morning. Tourists were bustling about, ooing and awing at the open ocean and the boats lined up along the docks. They’d take pictures of themselves standing in front of the stores, buying souvenirs and eating treats. The locals in their boats were well-used to this, and went about their business.

Nobody noticed two heads poke out of the water at the end of the pier.

“They’re not looking this way,” Chase said. He grinned. “C’mon.” He ducked back under the water, swimming closer.

“Chase! Hey!” Jackie hurried to catch up. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Of course!” Chase nodded enthusiastically. “The only ones who’d be looking directly down at the water are kids, and the adults aren’t gonna believe them.”

Jackie didn’t quite look convinced. “What if they think we’re big fish? What if my dorsal sticks out of the water? I’d freak them out, wouldn’t I? They’d think there was a shark, and who knows what they’d do when they’re scared?”

“Just stay down a bit, it’ll be fine,” Chase said reassuringly. They’d arrived at the end of the pier, and he was now circling around one of the dock’s supports. “I’ve been people-watching for a while, it’s not too hard to avoid them.” He smiled. “C’mon. You wanted to do something fun. This is what you get for letting me choose.”

Jackie sighed. He peeked out of the water, eyes scanning the boardwalk. “What’re they doing?”

Chase poked his head out as well. “I think some of them are on vacation.”

“Vacation?”

“Yeah, they take a break from work and go see places they’ve never seen before, to do new things. Some of these guys must live further inland, so they’re coming to see the ocean.”

“Ohhhh.” Jackie nodded. That he could understand. “So we just watch them?”

“And listen.” Chase watched the tourists stroll across the dock. “I like to guess what they’re talking about, where they’re from, what they do…” He dropped a bit lower in the water. “That’s not…creepy, is it?”

“I don’t think so. I mean, what else are you gonna do, watch the fish instead? At least you can understand these guys.” Jackie backed up a bit, looking at the pier. “Besides, some of these guys are doing that anyway.” He pointed out groups of people sitting on benches, clearly watching the other passerbys.

Chase looked a little reassured for that, regaining his enthusiasm. “Alright, if they’re doing it.” He bolted, swimming along the bottom of the pier. “Oh! You can see their shadows under here!” 

Jackie laughed, easily catching up. It was nice to see Chase so happy, even if he didn’t quite understand why.

The day passed. The two merms darted about the water, hiding in the shadows under the dock. Chase would tell Jackie the names of the human stuff he seemed curious about, and they’d make up stories about the humans passing on the boardwalk. Occasionally one would toss bits of food in the water, trying to attract fish, and once they’d lost interest, the two merms would snatch it up, (though Chase always said it tasted better dry.)

But still, Jackie wasn’t the type of person to stay idle for very long. He grew restless, and started playing a game with himself. Hover on the surface of the water just behind a human who was looking away, and then duck back down just in time to dodge their gaze. Over time, he got more bold, sneaking up closer to the docks, splashing about to draw their attention just before vanishing underwater. 

Chase noticed this when Jackie decided to pull himself halfway out of the water, practically half-climbing up one of the dock’s support pillars. “Jackie!” he hissed, poking his head out of the water. “What’re you doing?”

“Dude, they’re totally oblivious,” Jackie chuckled.

“I mean, yeah, but they have _cameras!_ ” Chase said.

“They have what?”

“They’re these little devices that can take a photo—which is, like, a drawing that’s super real and captures all the details.” Chase glanced up onto the boardwalk. “They’re getting smaller, I think they started to combine them with cell phones so now everyone has one.”

“Combine them with what?” Jackie shook his head. “Look, I’m being careful.”

“Are you?” Chase asked. His eyes darted about. “Because I don’t think you—” He turned around. And immediately froze. “…fuck.”

Jackie looked behind him as well. There was a boat drifting in the water, a name written on its side in human lettering. And peering over the side of the white boat was a human, who was very clearly staring at them and gaping.

“Abandon ship!” Chase gasped, ducking under the water.

“What?” Jackie looked down at him, then up at the human, then started to follow Chase.

The human shook their head. “Wait!”

Like an idiot, Jackie paused. He looked back up at the human.

“I-I’m sorry, I just—oh my god, i-is this some publicity stunt?” The human laughed. “Like, are you going to be putting on a show later? Or…?”

The words were confusing Jackie, and he froze as he tried to process them. He knew a few human languages, but there were a few weird words in those questions, and he couldn’t quite grasp their meaning. But he understood that the human wasn’t being hostile. They seemed more confused than anything. Curious, and perhaps being a bit too bold, Jackie swam closer to the side of the boat.

“Oh my god…” The human gasped. They leaned back, running a hand through their curly blonde hair. “No way. No fucking way. You…you’re really a…? Oh my god.”

Jackie felt a tugging on his tail. He looked down to see Chase trying—and failing—to pull him underwater. He flicked his tail, easily shaking him off. And then he reached down and pulled Chase to the surface by his arm. Chase yelped. “Chase, c’mon, don’t be a guppy.”

“Shut up, I’m the one that introduced you to that phrase,” Chase muttered. He tried to dive back under, but Jackie pulled him back up. “What are you doing?! Seriously! We need to get out of here before he tells someone!”

“I think if they—I mean, if he was gonna do that, he’d be doing that already.” Jackie looked back up at the human. “He’s just kinda staring at us.”

“He’s in shock, let it kick in. Then he’ll start screaming.”

“You don’t know that! _She_ didn’t start screaming, did she?”

Chase stopped trying to go back under. He glared at Jackie wordlessly.

“…sorry, low blow, I know,” Jackie admitted. “But my point stands. They don’t all freak out. Why are you so worried? You speak human.”

“I’m out of practice,” Chase muttered.

“Hey, um…” The human cleared his throat. “This is…kind of a lot to take in, I won’t lie. And I, uh, can’t understand your weird fish language.” He laughed nervously. “Can…you understand me?”

Jackie nodded. Chase shook his head.

“…both of those answer my question. Anyway, hi, I’m Ollie. I, uh…” The human—Ollie—looked behind him, grabbing something. “I was supposed to meet my…my friend, um, Isabelle, here…but…she cancelled on me just now. But I got her this.” He held up a small plastic bowl full of some kind of food, a plastic spoon shoved in it as well. “I don’t like vanilla, so I was just gonna throw it away, but do you guys want it or something?”

Chase’s eyes widened. “Nevermind, we are staying.”

Jackie laughed. “Sucker for food, huh?”

“Bro, take it. Try it. You’ll understand.”

Jackie shrugged, and reached up out of the water. Ollie leaned forward awkwardly, and passed him the plastic bowl. Jackie looked it over, holding it in both hands as he treaded water. He pulled the spoon out, and looked at Chase, who made a scooping motion. Catching on, Jackie scooped up some of the food with the spoon, taking a bite. His eyes lit up. “Oh my gods…”

“I know, right?” Chase grinned. “It’s called ice cream, it’s literally the best thing in the world. One of the things these guys do right is the food.”

“You guys like it?” Ollie asked. Jackie and Chase nodded in unison, and he, strangely enough, relaxed. “Alright then. You guys can chill here, I won’t bother you.” He backed away from the edge of the boat, sitting down.

Jackie and Chase, meanwhile, swam back underneath the pier, taking turns finishing the ice cream. Once they were done, Jackie swam back over to the boat and tossed the bowl and spoon back onto the deck. He heard a noise of surprise from Ollie, who looked back over the edge of the boat in confusion. Jackie laughed, backing away. Ollie shook his head, smiling, and returned to his seat.

“Still so eager to leave, Chase?” Jackie asked.

Chase considered this, though not for very long. “Nah. He’s cool.” He glared at Jackie again. “No more trying to get spotted, though.”

“Aw, alright.”

They hung around the boardwalk until the afternoon, and went home smiling and laughing. Somehow, they didn’t think anyone would be finding out about them today.


	11. The Laboratory

“Aren’t octopi, like, not fish?”

“What? Well I mean, they’re technically cephalopods. Why?”

The two humans were standing in front of a tank of water a little smaller than the average bedroom. One of them was mopping the floor around the tank, though he’d stopped to chat with the other one, who was taking notes on a clipboard.

“So I mean, doesn’t that change the whole myth aspect of it?” The mopping one asked. “The whole, half-man, half-fish thing?”

“Well, yeah.” The writing one shrugged. “But who knows? Maybe there are other ones who take the form of other marine species. Besides, this…isn’t really fully a cephalopod anyway. It’s some weird combination…we’re still looking at the DNA.”

“…huh.” The human man dropped his mop, walking closer to the glass. Staring beyond, into the water, there was a creature huddled in the corner, tentacles sticking to the glass. It might’ve been mistaken for an ordinary sea creature, if you overlooked the rest of it, which rather looked like a human from the waist up. The human man tapped on the glass.

“Don’t do that, Jon,” the other human said, not looking up from her writing. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

The human man looked over his shoulder at her. “On what? What’re you even taking notes on? And does it even matter if it does anything?” He turned back around, again knocking on the glass. “Hey! Tentacles! Can you understand me? Or are you just a fish brain?”

“Jon, I said not to do that,” the human woman hissed, looking up from her clipboard.

Inside the tank, the creature had raised its head. It was now glaring at the pair of humans, its tentacles changing color to a darker shade.

“Oh, look at that!” The human man looked delighted at this reaction. “I knew octopi could do that.” He banged on the glass more, pressing his face close. “Hellooooo! What’re you doing that for? Do I scaaare you? Huh? Tiny fish brai—”

In just a few seconds, the creature managed to lunge across the length of the tank, launching itself at the human man. The man yelped and jumped backwards as the creature smacked against the glass, tentacles suckering to the tank wall. It banged on the glass with a fist, mouth moving, though no sound came through the thick tank.

The human woman laughed. “Serves you right.” She looked down again, writing something new. “Be careful, it managed to break the first tank we put it in. You wouldn’t know that since it’s your first day in this particular lab, but you could’ve, I don’t know, easily asked me about anything you needed to know.”

“Jesus,” the human man muttered. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so…big.”

“Two hundred twenty centimeters long,” the woman commented. “Two hundred thirty across, with its tentacles fully extended, though it doesn’t spread them out in full very often.”

“Wow.” The man watched as the creature eventually sank back to the floor of the tank, still glaring at the two humans, mouth still moving in something that looked almost like words. “Can it talk?”

“No,” the woman said shortly. “It can make sounds, and I guess it almost sounds like a language at times, but its vocal chords aren’t adapted for speaking like us.” She paused. “Though maybe it could with practice, who knows?”

There were catwalks suspended above their heads, connected to the top of the tank. As the two humans below talked, footsteps thudded across the metal above. A group of three other humans were approaching the tank, chattering among themselves. The creature inside heard the footsteps, and looked up, its color fading back to normal.

“What’s this?” The man asked, intrigued.

The woman looked up at the group above. “Well, it should be pretty self-explanatory in a moment.” As she said that, the group began dumping fish into the tank, pushing them through the grate on top, which was just big enough for this express purpose. The creature inside swam to the top of the tank, grasping the grate. It managed to squeeze a hand through one of the holes in the grate, fingers clenching. The group of humans adjusted for this, moving a few feet down one of the catwalks to avoid the hand. The creature seemed to sigh as it pulled its hand back, settling down on the bottom of the tank. When a fish drifted close enough, it reached out and snatched it, biting into the side.

“Oh, I see.” The man nodded. “What’s with the lid?”

“The grate? Take a wild guess.” The woman rolled her eyes. “There were at least three instances in which it managed to climb out. Of course, it didn’t get much farther beyond that, but still. Better safe than sorry.”

“Ah.”

“Shouldn’t you be cleaning?”

“I can do that later, I don’t have much else to do today.” The man continued staring into the tank, watching the creature. The creature glared back at him, then turned around and hunched over, as if trying to hide. Not like there was anywhere to hide at all. “Regular escape artist, huh, Mel?”

“You have no idea.” The woman sighed deeply. “Y’know the water pumps to the tank used to be bigger. But we had to shrink them down because one time it managed to pry the gate open and squeeze inside. We thought it was too big for it to get inside, since it was too big for a person, but apparently its collarbone is weirdly flexible, and also it doesn’t have a pelvis or any lower bones, so that makes it able to fit inside smaller places. It also inked up the water, so we couldn’t even see this happening.” She shook her head. “Honestly, one day it’s just gonna get out and we’re all gonna have to deal with it.”

…

Five years later, in a cave in a deep coral reef, Schneep suddenly jolted awake, gasping for oxygen. It was just a dream. Just a dream. He wasn’t there anymore.

He didn’t want to be inside this cave right now. It was large, but not large enough. He needed open space. So he easily climbed through the entrance under the rocks, spreading himself out on the sand. He sighed deeply, looking around at the bioluminescent surroundings. Full of life. And completely empty of boundaries. No more people watching, no more schedules, no more feeling of constant hunger. He was okay. He was fine.

Schneep glanced upward, towards the surface. Maybe one day he’d go up that high again. Without the others. But only once he was sure they’d forgotten about him.


	12. Upstream

The transition from saltwater to freshwater was not always pleasant one, but it was doable. If Jack had to describe the feeling of being in freshwater, he would say it was almost like being too wet. Or some kind of bloated, sluggish feeling, as if he’d been eating too much. But he’d make the journey upstream anyway. Marvin was a friend, and if the two of them ever wanted to visit each other one of them would always be out of their home waters.

Jack entered the lake, hugging the rocky bed of the river until it fell away. “Hello?” he called, despite knowing that Marvin probably wasn’t close enough to hear him. And it seemed he was right, because he got no answer. So he decided to head deeper, swimming towards the floor of the lake. He skimmed along the sandy bottom, following it as it sloped downward.

Suddenly, something on the floor started to move. The sand shot up in a cloud. Jack yelped, backing up. A pair of blue eyes glared at him. Jack blinked back, taking in the image of another merm. “Um…hi?”

“Hello!”

Jack looked up, seeing Marvin approach. “Oh hi, Marv.”

“Hi. I see you’ve met my new apprentice.” Marvin ducked down to the lake floor. “Jack, meet Jameson, Jameson, meet Jack.” Marvin turned his attention over to the other merm—Jameson. “Jack’s a friend of mine. I sent a message to him last week, remember?”

Jameson nodded, seeming to relax a bit. He shook himself out of being buried in the sand, swimming up to be level with Jack. Marvin followed.

“Oh, hi, Jameson.” Jack waved. “New apprentice, huh?”

Jameson nodded again.

“He’s picking it up real quick,” Marvin said proudly. “Hey, did you bring the thing?”

“Oh, right!” Jack was wearing a human-made backpack (Chase had told him the name for it.) He pulled it off, undid the zipper—that was a fun word—and reached inside, pulling out a stack of preserved kelp, bound together with string in the style of a human book. He thumbed through the pages. “You’re so lucky I found this in the first place. Here.” He tossed it over to Marvin. The book floated through the water, and Marvin caught it easily. “So you’re learning MSL?”

“Yeah, we both are.” Marvin gestured at Jameson as well. “You guys should, too, if you’re gonna keep coming up here.”

“Really? Why?” Jack asked, intrigued. “Something happen?”

Jameson waved cheerfully. Marvin chuckled. “Yeah, Jamie happened. He can’t talk, figured this would help.”

“Oh.” Jack went quiet for a moment. How would someone respond to that? Should he say sorry, or something? Just move on? Ask what happened? “I see,” he finally decided.

Marvin handed the book to Jameson, who began flipping through it. “You need anything, Jack? Want to stay for a while? Eat something?”

“Yeah, that’d be great.” Jack perked up. “I haven’t seen you in a bit, and then you just send me this magic message asking me to get you something? God, I’d think you only talk to me because I can get you ocean stuff. By the way, you still have that knife?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I can message any of you for that. And yeah, it’s come in handy.” Marvin flicked his tail, heading back towards the center of the lake. “C’mon, we can hang out by the hot spring.”

They settled down onto a group of rocks deep in the lake. Or, well, Jack and Marvin did. Jameson preferred to settle down on the sandy floor. “So, how’s Sam doing?” Marvin asked. Then he looked at Jameson and explained, “That’s Jack’s pet, she’s a discus fish. They’re flat and round, like those things called pancakes.”

Jameson had grabbed a stylus and piece of preferred seaweed back at the house. _I’m a pancake, too,_ he wrote down, smiling.

Marvin burst into laughter. “Yeah, you are. Except discuses are more colorful. Imagine Jack, but flat vertically instead of horizontally.”

Jack chuckled. “Yeah, Sam’s doing good. You should come out to see her some time. Anything new been going on here?”

“Other than Jamie? No, not much.” Marvin flipped through the book again. “Man, why’d they stop making these?”

“They still make them, it’s just that there’s not a lot of people who do,” Jack sighed. “It takes a lot of work to write a whole book. Y’know, humans have figured out how to mass produce them? Chase told me that there are so many out there that everyone has a few.” 

_Lucky_ , Jameson added.

“I know, right?” Jack exclaimed. “Meanwhile, the closest bookbinder I know lives a few hours’ swim away—which is why you’re doubly lucky that she had one you were looking for on hand—and I have to circumvent that trench from two months ago to get there. I told you about that, right? When I ran across the giant squid and the eel merm?” Jack leaned back and stuck his tail into the water above him. “You can still see the marks from where he grabbed my tail and lightning’ed me.”

“Yeah, you told me,” Marvin said, grinning. “Jamie, you want to hear the story?”

Jameson frowned. _The eel shocked you?_ He asked.

“Yeah, it was crazy!” Jack said.

That seemed to confuse Jameson further. _You met him in an ocean trench?_

“Yeah…why?” Jack asked.

 _Electric eels are river merms_ , Jameson explained. _How did you find one in saltwater?_

Jack paused. “I…didn’t know that. I’ve never seen one before, so I guess I just assumed…that was where he was supposed to be.” He paused. “I mean, is it that bad for one of you freshies to be in salty water?”

Marvin hissed sharply, inhaling water through his teeth. “Well, yeah. A little. It’s not like, bad for visits, but it sounds like this guy is living there…so it would be like…uh…” He flailed his arms about, fins flying as he looked for the right words. “Uh…”

 _It feels a bit like drying out,_ Jameson said helpfully, to be in saltwater. _Like your skin is too tight._

“Huh…” Jack shivered a bit. “Y’know that puts a different angle on it, if this eel guy is just drying out the whole time.”

“Yeah…” Marvin nodded. “I mean, he’s still a dick for attacking you.”

Jack laughed. “Oh yeah, totally. But I mean…come on. Why would he even hang out there, if it’s uncomfortable?”

Marvin shrugged. “Sometimes people are just stupid. Speaking of all this talk about not being in the right water, do you want to head back anytime soon?”

“Hmm…” Jack considered this. Sam might be worried, but on the other hand. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll just stay here and steal all your hot spring water.”

Jameson promptly reached over and smacked him.

“Hey! Ow!” Jack laughed. “Alright, I’ll leave. But not yet. I don’t see you often, Marvin, and I’d like to get to know you better, Jameson.”

Marvin stretched out. “Alright, greenie boy. Suit yourself.”

They spent the next hour or so chatting the afternoon away. By the time Jack decided he should go, the issue of the eel was all but forgotten.


	13. Clash

Jackie was looking for something. Or, more accurately, he was looking for someone. Someone he’d never met before, but who he knew he just had to meet.

Luckily, Jack had described the location really well. Even though the open ocean floor often looked pretty similar, Jackie was able to find the spot he was looking for easily enough, backtracking from Jack’s house to this place. Scanning the ocean floor, the trench was easily visible, a crack in the sand. Jackie ducked down towards it.

He poked his head inside. Man, it was really dark down there, wasn’t it? Jackie had fairly good night vision, and it was still pitch black to him. “Hello?” He shouted. “Anyone there?” No answer, except for the echo.

Jackie considered his options. He _could_ go down there himself, see if he could find anything. But it was very dark, and he’d be out of his own territory. So instead, he swam back, gathering up rocks and plucking up some seaweed. He tied the bioluminescent seaweed around the rocks and began dropping them down the trench every few minutes. He watched as the green glow rapidly faded, swallowed by the darkness every time. Until one time when the small dot of light didn’t fade. In fact, it was getting bigger. In fact, it was being thrown upward right at his—

Jackie ducked back just in time to avoid being clocked in the head by the rock, grabbing it as it started falling back down. He peered back into the trench, and some way down there, just before the shadows _completely_ took over, he could barely make out the slithering figure of a merm, and the hint of glowing green eyes. “Hello!” He shouted. “I need to talk to you!”

He watched as the merm tensed, and then suddenly was rushing at him. Jackie’s eyes widened, and he again ducked back, swimming backwards. The merm charged out of the trench, swimming upwards a bit before spinning back around and lunging at Jackie.

“Hey!” Jackie dodged to the side, and the other merm—an eel—headed straight into the sand, sending up a cloud of particles as he landed. Jackie backed away, swimming upward so he could keep the eel in sight. “I’m not here to fight! I just have some questions.”

The eel squirmed, spitting out mouthfuls of sand. He turned back to glare at Jackie. “If you’re here at all, you’re here to fight,” he growled. “Unless you’re ready to flee.”

“No, like I said, I just have some questions,” Jackie said, keeping a calm, even tone.

“Well you can take your questions, and shove them up your—!” The eel darted forward again before finishing that sentence.

Jackie yelped, swimming yet higher. The eel sailed right under him, but quickly turned about, reaching forward and barely managing to grab the caudal fin at the end of Jackie’s tail. Electricity climbed up his own tail and across his arms. Jackie jerked backwards, but the lightning blast still got to him and he went tumbling through the water.

What was with this guy?! Most predator merms weren’t nearly this aggressive. If Jackie was going to talk to him, he’d have to get him to calm down, but that clearly wasn’t happening anytime soon. A plan started to form in Jackie’s mind. “Alright, fine, you want to kill me?” He shouted, putting on a cocky grin. “Ha! Good luck! Show me your worst!”

The eel snarled, and darted forward again. Jackie immediately turned and swam in the opposite direction. “Get back here you coward!” He heard the eel shout.

There was a kelp forest not too far away, after a sudden slope in the ocean floor. It was a vast forest, too, with strands of kelp reaching almost all the way to the surface. Jackie headed towards it, speeding up and slowing down and sometimes throwing taunts back at the eel to make sure he stayed interested in pursuing him. Luckily, this eel seemed to run on spite and anger, and wouldn’t let up.

Soon the strands of kelp began showing up, growing taller and denser. Jackie weaved between the strands, looking behind him to see the eel still in pursuit. He laughed, and swerved around a particularly tall strand. The eel followed, and immediately got clotheslined by another strand that Jackie had grabbed and pulled sideways. The eel spun through the water, momentarily dazed. It was only for a few seconds, but Jackie was quick. He grabbed two more kelp strands and spun circles around the eel. By the time the other merm realized what was happening, he was already tangled.

“Wh—you little bitch!” The eel squirmed against the tangled strands, teeth snapping as he tried to bite them.

“Alright, now that we can have a talk without you trying to maim me, let’s do that.” Jackie stretched lazily, tail straightening. “Like I said, I have a few questions, and I’m not gonna untangle you until you answer them.”

“Go get caught in a net, fucker,” the eel growled. His tail thrashed, generating electricity. The lightning burned the kelp strands, but did nothing to break them.

“No, I don’t think I will,” Jackie shrugged. “Anyway. A friend of mine told me about you, this green discus merm, dunno if you remember him—”

“Oh, that stupid little—”

“Alright, apparently you do,” Jackie interrupted him before he could say anything worse about Jack. “Good to know. A week or so ago, he also went exploring the shoreline. And there, he found a cave under the cliffs. And in that cave, he found a dead merm. A barracuda, actually. And when he told me about this, I remembered that the other day I found this gang of barracudas who’d been terrorizing a few settlements, and got rid of one altogether. And that this gang had banished one of their members for not wanting to join in on the terrorizing.”

“Get to the point, Jaws,” the eel growled.

Jackie rolled his eyes. “I’m getting there. Anyway, long story short, I managed to convince these guys to back down, and one of them asked me to find out about this one they’d banished. I figured, hey, why not, and so when my friend told me about a dead barracuda in an area close to a merm who’d previously attacked him…” Jackie shrugged. “Well, I decided I might as well ask you if you did it.”

“Yes.” The eel laughed when he saw how shocked Jackie was at the direct answer. “What, did you expect me to deny it? Why?”

“Most people aren’t so open about murdering someone,” Jackie pointed out.

The eel growled. “He was leeching off my territory! Taking my prey!”

“There’s plenty of fish in the area, are you crazy?” Jackie paused. “What’s your name?”

The eel glared, but after a moment’s silence he said, “Anti.”

“Family name?”

“Nobody gives a fuck about family names anymore.”

“I know an octopus who would disagree with you,” Jackie muttered. “Okay, then. Anti. You know I can’t just let you get away with this.”

Anti burst into laughter. “‘Get away with it?’ What, was there a crime committed here? Are you gonna lock me up? Oh I’m so scared.” He bared his teeth. “I’m not sure what world you’re living in, lemon boy, but there are no laws in the ocean.”

“If you’re going to keep attacking and killing people, you’re going to suffer the consequences,” Jackie said firmly.

“No, I’m afraid not.” And with that, Anti lunged forward.

Jackie gasped as he was tackled. Anti must’ve been wriggling his way out of the tangle of kelps during the conversation. Jackie was taken by surprise as Anti’s claws dug into his shoulders. Electricity built up along his tail and jolted from his arms into Jackie. The shark merm never had time to scream before his eyes rolled back and he stopped moving.

Anti backed away. Had he killed him? He reached forward, pressing a hand against Jackie’s chest. No, his heart was beating. Anti growled, claws scraping along Jackie’s skin, drawing blood that floated away in the water. Should he do it now? 

No. What if he had friends? Some kind of group to enforce their own rules on the sea? If he killed him now, that could be cause for revenge. So Anti backed away, but not before he left a message. His claws scraped across Jackie’s face, leaving long, deep scratches horizontally across it. Though the scratches went over Jackie’s eyes, he made sure not to dig too deeply there. He wasn’t cruel enough to blind him. Yet. More would be said if Jackie kept poking his fins where they didn’t belong.

With a flick of his tail, Anti headed back towards his trench.


	14. Family Reunion

A bus pulled up to the station, and two twelve-year-old kids stepped off. A boy and a girl, brunette with barely an inch of height in between them. The girl reached into her pocket and pulled out a city map, the kind of which could be bought at any convenience store for a few dollars. She unfolded it, and the two kids discussed where they were and how to get to their destination. After a while, the girl refolded the map, and the two of them started walking.

A few blocks later, the kids arrived at the beach, finding it full of tourists. Made sense, it was a hot summer day after all, and at noon with the sun high in the sky as well. The kids stood on the edge of the sand, looking out over at the ocean. Until suddenly the girl tapped the boy’s shoulder, and pointed at a part of the beach that was sectioned off by a chain link fence. She immediately bolted for it.

“Sereia!” The boy called, chasing after her.

The girl—Sereia—didn’t stop until she reached the fence. There was a danger sign pinned to the barrier, and beyond which the beach became rocky. She turned around as the boy caught up with her, panting. “You’re so slow, Muirin,” she sighed.

“I was trying to make sure the lifeguard didn’t see me!” Muirin hissed, pointing out the tall white chair. “You should too!” He glanced back at the fence, eyebrows drawing close.

“Don’t tell me you’re having second thoughts now,” Sereia said. “You got on the bus with me. If you’re just gonna go back you’ll waste your entire day.”

“I didn’t know it would be blocked off,” Muirin said defensively. “How’re we gonna get around?”

Sereia considered this. “We climb over it,” she decided, grasping the links. She looked down at her feet, trying to fit her tennis shoes in the holes.

“What? No!” Muirin looked down the beach. “Maybe we can just go around—”

“I don’t think we can.” Sereia said bluntly. “C’mon, hurry before someone sees us.”

“There has to be another—”

“Muirin, why are we here?”

Muirin blinked. “I know why—”

“Yeah, but I want you to tell me,” Sereia interrupted.

After a moment, Muirin sighed. “We wanted to see the spot Mom always talks about,” he said dully. “Where she last saw Dad.”

“Exactly.” Sereia nodded firmly. “And it’s behind this fence, so we’re gonna have to go over it.”

Another sigh. “Fine, I’ll help you.”

After a moment of awkward climbing and flailing of limbs, the two kids were on the other side of the fence, landing on the rocky ground. Now they could see that there was an old wooden dock some ways down the shore, looking quite rotten. Sereia led the way, bouncing excitedly, and Muirin trailed behind.

“Mom’s gonna be soooo mad,” he muttered.

“Yeah,” Sereia agreed. “But we’re going out and doing stuff! Like we’re the Boxcar Children! You like those, right? Imagine we’re them. On an adventure! To solve a mystery!”

“I don’t know what you’re expecting to find,” Muirin muttered.

“Well, I just want to see it,” Sereia shrugged. “So we’re not just two kids with dumb names.”

“I like my name. It’s Irish. And yours is Portugese. Like Grandma.”

“I know, Muirin.”

The two of them came up on the old dock, a pier that extended out into the water. The shore wasn’t a gradual sloping beach here, it dropped off suddenly. Seriea peered down at the ocean surface, then stepped onto the dock, testing the old planks with her foot. They creaked, but held her weight. Muirin waited for Seriea to walk a few steps before following.

Seriea looked around at the endless ocean, stretching out into the horizon. She had to be honest with herself, she was expecting…well, more. But it really was just an old dock. Well…at least it was a little exciting taking the bus here, all the way from their hometown to their mom’s old town. She sighed, and was about to turn to leave, when she noticed something at the very end of the dock. She stepped closer, squinting into the sunlight. Was there…a guy at the end of the dock? A few steps closer. It was! A guy who was half-off the dack, half-in the water, an old, extremely faded cap on his head, his head lying down on his folded arms.

“Look at that,” she said, grabbing Muirin by the arm. “Do you think that guy’s dead?”

Muirin squinted at the guy on the dock. “Um, I don’t know.”

“We should go check.” Sereia straightened, and ran down the dock towards the end.

“Wh—Ser, wait!”

She reached the end of the dock. Maybe the guy was dead, he hadn’t really reacted to the sound of her footsteps. Or maybe he was asleep. When she was only a few feet away, she shouted. “Hey Mister! Are you dead?!”

The man started, and looked up at her. His eyes widened. And he pushed away from the dock and into the water.

“Hey wait!” Sereia ran towards the spot where the man had disappeared. Her plan was to stop at the end of the dock and look into the water to see if the guy was alright. But as she stepped onto the last bit of the dock, the plank below her feet suddenly—

_CRAK!_

She barely had time to yell before her vision was engulfed in bubbles, water stinging her eyes. Immediately, she started to thrash. She couldn’t swim! Her brother and her had grown up in a landlocked city, though the coast was only a few hours away, and their mother hadn’t let them go swimming. Yet here she was, fully immersed in water and sinking quickly. She flailed wildly. Her legs were starting to cramp and seize up. She had to get out!

But the surface was getting farther and farther away. She stared upward, when she started hearing this strange…clicking, chirping, babbling sound, interspersed with trills and whistles. It almost sounded like dolphins, but more…sophisticated.

Sereia couldn’t hold her breath any longer. She couldn’t help it. Instinctively, she inhaled deeply, water going down her nose.

The strange sounds suddenly changed. Well, actually they didn’t—but now, oddly enough, she understood what they meant. “—tiny little human! Just stop wiggling, I know that sounds counterproductive, but—oh gods, you can’t even understand me, but calm down anyway!”

Sereia gasped, and looked towards the source of the sounds. It was the guy who’d been lying on the dock. Except now she could see more of him. And—and that was a tail. _That was a fish’s tail._

“Oh my god…” she muttered. And then it hit her. She wasn’t struggling to breathe any more. That was probably a bad sign. “Are you an angel?” she asked.

“Am I a…? Oh!” More of those chirping noises that she somehow understood. The man was definitely the one making them. “No, I’m a—” The man glanced downwards. And stopped. “What the fuck?!” He shouted, swimming backwards in the water.

Seriea looked down as well. And then she noticed it. Her legs were gone, as well as her shorts and tennis shoes. In their place was a long fishtail. White with golden stripes, ending in a golden fin with a black spot. She gasped, and looked at the rest of her. There were little yellow fins on her wrists! She touched her head. There were fins on the side of her head, sticking out from behind her ears. “Wh-what the heck? What the heck?!”

“Heck? Oh, I’m sorry, I-I meant what the freak earlier, just forget what I said!” The man was staring at her. “I—what—oh my gods, I’m so sorry for freaking out, I didn’t know you were a halfling.”

“I’m a what?! What’s going on?!” Seriea spun around in the water, doing barrel rolls. “Why am I a mermaid now?!”

“Oh. Uh, I guess you didn’t know, either.” The man laughed nervously. “What about your friend up there?”

“My—oh my god, Muirin!” Seriea somehow managed to direct herself upright, and swam up, bursting out of the water. She gasped at the sudden change from liquid to air, and how light everything felt now. She was still at the end of the dock, and she waved wildly with one hand, using the other to keep balance in the water. “Muirin! _Muirin!_ Are you still there?!”

Silence. And then Muirin’s head peeked over the end of the dock. “Ser, oh my god,” he said, relieved. “I thought you drown—what happened to your face?”

“What?” Seriea touched her face. She found a stripe of something cool running vertically across her left eye…scales? “Muir, I’m a mermaid,” she said bluntly.

Muirin stared at her. And then he laughed. “So, um…how long were you planning this? I-I don’t know how you did it, but you got me!”

Seriea sighed. Her hand darted up, grabbed the collar of Muirin’s shirt, and pulled him into the water.

“AAACHK!” Muirin splashed into the water, and just like Seriea, began flailing about wildly. He wasn’t sinking, though, so Seriea jumped on him and pushed him under. She briefly wondered if maybe just she was a mermaid and she was about to suddenly become an only child, when Muirin managed to escape, and suddenly threw himself on her. She yelled as they both went under. “What is wrong with you?!” Muirin yelled. “Why did you—wait.” He stopped, eyes widening. “Holy fudge crackers, I’m breathing underwater!”

Seriea managed to swim a bit away to look at Muirin. He had a tail, too, now. His was black and white striped, though the fin at the end was still yellow. He also had yellow fins on his wrists and head, though there was an additional long white fin poking out of his back from underneath his shirt. “Dude, holy crap, we’re merpeople!” Seriea shouted.

“Actually, you’re halflings.” It was the man from before.

Muirin blinked in surprise at the guy. “Nemo?”

The man chuckled. “No, but I love that movie. Anyway, you guys didn’t know you were halflings? I mean, you’re only fries, but I figured your parents would tell you.”

“We’re only what?” Seriea asked, confused.

“Fries are baby fish,” Muirin said. He suddenly gasped, then coughed. “Ser, oh my god, what if Dad was a merman?! And that’s why Mom never talked about him!”

“Holy crap! Holy hell!” Seriea shouted. “He totally was!”

“Wait a second.” The man held his hands up, asking them to wait. “So, you two never knew this? And…you don’t have a dad? But you have…a mom?” His voice broke on the last question.

“Yeah, that’s why we’re here.” Seriea nodded. “‘Cause our mom always said she last saw our dad here. She even said that it was at the, uh, the old dock up there.” She paused. “My name is Seriea, by the way, and this is my brother Muirin. We’re twins. What’s your name?”

The man suddenly covered his mouth with his hands. He blinked furiously. Even though they were in the water, his eyes looked wet. “My name is Chase,” he choked out. “Is…is your mom named Stacy?”

“Yeah, why?” Seriea asked. “Do you know her?”

Muirin’s jaw dropped. He stared at Chase with wide eyes. “…Dad?”

Chase nodded. “I think I’m your dad.”

Seriea blinked, surprised. “…what?”

Chase laughed, wiping at his eyes. “I was nineteen years old and stupid. Or—nineteen years old for us, for humans I was only seventeen. I just, I saw a cool, nice girl and I wanted to know her more. I-I didn’t think we would end up falling in love—a-and when we, well, you know, I-I didn’t think there would be—h-how old are you two?”

“We’re eleven—no, twelve,” Muirin said. “Our birthday was in March.”

Chase looked up to the surface, eyes going distant as he did the math. “Nine months before that was June, and—oh my gods.” He laughed. “Oh my gods! I-it’s really—” The laughs started devolving into sobs. “I-I have kids. Halfling kids, o-oh my gods.” He rubbed his eyes again.

“We have a mermaid dad!” Seriea shouted. She twisted her tail and somehow managed to dart forward, ramming into Chase’s chest. He grunted at the force, but then softened when he noticed Seriea’s arms wrapped around him. “This is amazing! Oh my god, do you think that’s why Mom works at the aquarium now?!” She gasped. “Oh my god, is that why Grandma and Grandpa moved and took her with them? Not just because she was gonna have kids, but because she was gonna have mer-kids?!”

“I-I don’t think Stacy would’ve told her parents she was going to have halfling kids,” Chase laughed. “From what I knew about them, they were probably freaked out enough that she got pregnant. God, I never would’ve expected that—”

“Wait, so how does this work?” Muirin asked. Somehow, he’d managed to flip upside down. “Why are you a clownfish and we’re different things? How come this only happens when we go in water? Do we have gills? Where did our clothes go?”

“It’s magic, Muir, don’t worry about it,” Seriea said cheerfully.

Chase chuckled. “I might be able to answer a few questions, and I have friends who can answer the rest. Now, I want to know everything. How’s Stacy doing? Where do you guys live now? What do you like to do? You probably go to school, right? What’s that like?”

For the next couple hours, the kids and Chase exchanged questions and answers. The kids were clumsy at swimming, so Chase tried his best to teach them. Eventually, though, Chase found out that the two of them had taken the bus out to the beach on their own, without telling their mother. He insisted that they go back, and that they tell Stacy about everything that happened. With his help, they climbed back onto the dock, and found that the tails faded back to legs, complete with shorts and shoes, within ten minutes. Seriea promised they would come back to see him. Muirin added that it might take a week or two. Chase just smiled, and waved as they left.

He’d wait to see if they came back again. But even if they didn’t, this was still enough.


	15. Special Delivery

Jack ducked his head into the hole in the rocks. He stared down the tunnel into the cave before backing out again. “Sam, you wanna duck in first?” Sam flipped in the water, then swam forward into the hole. Jack pushed his bag through the tunnel, then followed, squeezing in between the rocks. The cave entrance had been made for a larger merm, but it was still close enough to give Jack a feeling of claustrophobia as his scales scraped the sides.

Luckily, the tunnel was short. Jack soon emerged into a wide underwater cave. The craggy rock walls were spotted with glowing mushrooms and other fungus, most of them emitting faint yellow light, bioluminescence bright enough to illuminate the entire space.

“Hey!” A cluster of tentacles fell out from an alcove high up in the rock wall. Schneep was scowling. “What are you—” Upon seeing Jack, his expression softened into a smile. “Ah, my friend!”

“Hey, Henrik,” Jack said cheerfully. “How’s it going?”

“Fine, fine, I was taking a nap. Next time, please shout down that you are outside, okay? Instead of just coming in.”

“Alright, got it.” Jack nodded. “Anyway, you want to see what Sam and I found?”

Schneep swam a bit closer, intrigued. Meanwhile, Sam swam in circles around his head, and he chuckled, smiling at her. “Hello Sam. Nice to see you too.” He turned back to Jack. “What was it that you found, hmm?”

Jack grinned. He ducked down and picked up the bag he’d shoved through earlier. He undid the zipper—still such a fun word!—and reached inside. “There was this human shipwreck out in the triangle.”

“Another one?”

“Yeah, but a new one. You’ll like this, it had some human medical stuff.” Jack pulled another bag, this one smaller, red with a white cross. He unzipped this as well. “I don’t know what any of this stuff is called or for.”

“Well, perhaps there are instructions.” Schneep took the offered bag. He rummaged about inside, a few items floating away in the water. “Oh! There are. But…” He pulled out a packet of paper stapled together, pieces of the soaked paper breaking off in the water.

“Aw.” Jack’s fins drooped. “That sucks.”

Schneep sighed, placing the ruined instructions on a nearby rock shelf, trying his best to get them smooth while also being delicate. “Perhaps we can figure it out.” He bit his lip, leaning closer to the words, eyes scanning sideways. “Ah…no, I do not recognize this human language. The characters are familiar, but not the way they are arranged.”

Jack peered over his shoulder. “Maybe you’d recognize it if you heard it read out loud?” He tried to phrase it softly. He knew Schneep knew a lot of human languages; more than any of them, in fact. But he could only read one. The exact reason for _why_ this was, Jack didn’t know. But he knew it was a sensitive topic, and if prodded too hard Schneep would shut down.

“Perhaps.” Schneep grabbed a nearby rock and placed it on top of the instructions to stop them from floating away. Then he turned back to the human medical bag. “Ah! Bandages!” He pulled out four rolls, setting them on a nearby outcropping. “Some packages of their adhesive small bandages…” A few of those scattered throughout the water. He grabbed them and stuffed them back in the bag. “Cotton balls—useless here, unfortunately.” He let those drift away. “A thermometer, digital so it does not work anymore. Two different kinds of cream, I think. I will keep those sealed. Tweezers and scissors, very good, very good. And what is this?” He pulled out a small, sealed box with a label written on it in a human language. On the back there was a picture of a human with something over their eye. “Ah, I think this is for eye wounds, I see.” He set those on the outcropping with the bandages.

“You see? Well I mean I guess with those things you might not see…” Jack trailed off. “Nevermind, that was funnier in my head.”

Schneep chuckled. “I get it. Very nice, Jack. Not well executed.”

“Shush! We’re done, moving on!” He waved his hands through the water. Schneep giggled. “Hey! Move on, damn it!”

“Alright, alright. I have something for you too, Jack. Well, for you and Sam.”

“Oh?”

Schneep swam to the back of the cave, where there were several small alcoves in the wall. He reached inside one and pulled out a small human-made bottle. Swimming back, he showed it off to Jack. “Look at this!”

Jack obliged, looking at it. “What…is it?” He tilted his head. Sam swam closer as well.

Schneep unscrewed the bottle’s top, revealing a smaller top underneath, punctured with holes. He shook the bottle, and a few flakes drifted out through the water. Sam seemed to perk up, and swam closer to the flakes. She started to nibble on them. “They are fish flakes! For aquarium fish! I know Sam gets along well enough already, but I figured it could be a treat.”

“Oh cool!” Jack took the bottle and the cap, testing it out by screwing it on and off a couple times. He shook it, releasing more flakes. Then, curious, he shook a few flakes into his hand and clapped his hand to his mouth.

“Jack!”

“Not bad, actually.” Jack swallowed. “Like, uhhh what’s the word? Flavoring.”

Schneep rolled his eyes. “All of you are idiots. I am the only one with a brain out here.”

“Don’t you have nine brains, technically?” Jack wondered. “Aren’t there, like, some in your tentacles—”

“Hey! No!” Schneep proceeded to slap Jack with one of said tentacles. “That is not how it works! They are advanced nerves! Not brains!”

Jack laughed, swimming some ways back. “I struck a _nerve_ there I see! Ayyy, that makes up for earlier!”

Schneep groaned. “All of you. Tiny little idiots.”

“Eh, I dunno, Jameson’s got his head on straight. You still need to come meet him, by the way.”

“I will, I will, I just…at a time when the lake has less humans around it.” Schneep folded his arms, clearly uncomfortable.

Jack knew enough to tell when he shouldn’t press a matter. He shoved his backpack through the cave entrance, popping it back outside. “Alright, winter it is, then. Luckily that’s coming up soon.” He grinned at Schneep. “Thanks for the flakes, Hen, I can already tell Sam loves them.”

Schneep watched as Sam darted through the water, trying to gobble up the last of the floating flakes. “No, do you think?”

“I do!” Jack whistled. “Hey! Sam!” Sam finished up the last of the flakes, then swam over to meet Jack. “Up?” She flipped in the water, then vanished through the cave entrance. “I’ll see you some time later, then?”

“Will be seeing you, yes.” Schneep waved. “Goodbye Jack.”

“Bye, Hen!” Jack darted forward and squeezed through the tunnel again. He emerged on the other side to find the waters darker than when he’d gone into the cave.

Sam swam up to him, bumping against the side of his cheek. Jack laughed, and grabbed his bag again. “It’s getting late, ready to head home?” Sam tilted in the water, an imitation of a nod. Jack nodded back. Then he slung the human backpack over his shoulders and started the long swim back towards his lagoon.


	16. Out of his Depth

“Oh wow I hate this I am gonna diiiie~!” Marvin was making up the tune as he went along, singing to himself under his breath. “Oh my gods it’s so much nothing, but here I go aaaanywayy~!”

He liked his lake a lot. He knew every inch of it, all the fish and other animals that lived there. It was a nice, cozy place where he could practice his magic in peace. The ocean, on the other hand…besides the obvious “freshwater merm in saltwater” problem that caused him _significant_ discomfort, there were just…there were no boundaries. It just went on and on and on…Marvin liked structure. He liked to keep things organized. He did not like things that changed as easily as the ocean did. Thus, he tried to limit his visits out there.

But sometimes it couldn’t be helped. Like today. Marvin had noticed they’d been running out of fallen stars for a while, but he hadn’t been able to push himself to do something about it. Until they were out. He’d told Jameson, of course, and asked him to go get some more. But he…had a hard time describing what they looked like to him, and eventually Jameson suggested he just go himself. Marvin had initially protested, but he soon realized it was probably the easiest solution. Didn’t make it any more enjoyable, though.

“I am so gonna die my death out heeere,” Marvin sang. He’d brought along one of his power stones, and he now clutched the fist-sized rock to his chest as he swam along the ocean floor. Always stay close to the ocean floor. It was a lot easier for him to remember where he’d been when he did it. He was _not_ gonna go about in the open ocean where everything looked literally exactly the same. “I’m swimming in a void of de-eath!”

It seemed like every time he went to look for fallen stars, he had to go further down into the deep down dark deep down (he blamed Jack for putting that phrase in his head.) Apparently they used to be able to grow anywhere there was water, but over time they retreated deeper.

The water grew colder and darker, though he knew the sun was still shining on the surface. His gills worked hard, trying to get enough oxygen from the deeper water. The ocean floor was populated with twisted rock formations, and Marvin had to use some of the power stone’s stored energy just to give himself more light. “Fuck thiiiis,” he whispered.

Finally, he saw one. There was something glowing on the ocean floor. Well, a lot of things glowed this far down. But it was swaying in the current, much like…a plant. Even though most plants couldn’t grow this far down. Marvin quickly swam closer, and grinned.Yep, fallen stars were sprouting on the seafloor. They didn’t look too different from the average underwater plant. They grew long stalks, with a cluster of seaweed-like tendrils at the top that resembled the shape of a sea star. But it was the fact that they were growing so far down that made them magical. Well that, and the shifting multicolored glow coming from inside every one of their cells.

Marvin took his bag—tightly woven together from weeds that grew in the lake—off his shoulder, making sure to keep hold of the power stone as he opened it. He shifted the stone to his other hand, holding it and the bag, and reached forward for the fallen stars.

Something moved along the ocean floor. He shrieked, withdrawing his hand. What was that?! It looked like a miniature octopus, but with less color. He watched it as it crawled away. Sighing, he reached forward again, only for something to suddenly snap at his hand.

He yelped, backing up. He directed the light from the power stone at the retreating thing. What was _that?!_ It had snappy claws! Some kind of…long crab? Marvin took a deep breath, then darted forward, pulling as many fallen stars out of the ground as he could, then darted back again. He repeated this three more times before he decided enough is enough, and got ready to head back.

It was then that he saw something huge move in the darkness. He froze, eyes scanning the shadows. There was something there. Something three times bigger than he was…and as he watched, it was coming right for him—!

Marvin shrieked, and turned to flee. Tail pumping hard, clutching the bag of fallen stars and the power stone close to him, he breathed hard. Looking back, it was still there. He yelled again, and tried to swim faster. But it was getting closer, closer, closer—

Something rushed past him and back towards the thing in the water. It went so fast that Marvin tumbled over and over through the water from the force of the current it caused. He stopped, upside down, staring as something smaller attached itself to the thing following him. After a moment of struggling, the bigger thing retreated, and the other one swam back over towards Marvin. He initially shrank back, but then the light from his power stone fell upon it…or rather, him.

“What the hell are you doing out here, freshie?” Jackie asked.

“Shut up, salty,” Marvin muttered. “I needed stuff.”

Jackie reached forward and grabbed Marvin’s shoulders. He then spun him over until he was right side up again. Marvin scowled, slapping him with his caudal fin. “You couldn’t have asked someone to get it for you?” Jackie sighed. “Like you always do?”

“Well, I…you wouldn’t know what to look for.” Marvin scowled. He opened his bag, letting some of the glow from the fallen stars shine out.

Jackie peered inside. “Glowy shit. Hard not to miss.”

Marvin snapped the bag shut. “What’re you doing here, anyway?”

“Jamie sent me one of your magic messages. Apparently he was worried about you. So I decided to come look for you. I just went in a straight line from your river delta to here.”

“…oh.” Marvin swallowed nervously. “Well. Then.”

Jackie raised an eyebrow. “Are you gonna say something?”

“…wait, am I supposed to? What? Um…why are you wearing an eye mask made out of seaweed?”

Jackie sighed. “Long story. I meant you should say ‘thank you.’”

“Oh my gods, I’m so sorry.” Marvin covered his mouth. “I didn’t think—um, thank you. For fighting off that thing.”

“No problem.” Jackie smiled slightly. “It was a Greenland shark, normally they don’t attack living things.”

“Oh, fuck my luck, then.”

Jackie laughed. He backed up in the water. “So, I’m guessing you’re heading back now?”

“Yeah, um…” Marvin looked around. “I would be…if I knew where to go,” he mumbled. His sense of direction was absolutely awful, which was another reason he hated the ocean.

“Alright, I got you.” Jackie nodded. “Just follow me.” He started swimming off in a direction, slow enough so that Marvin could stay even with him.

“Thanks,” Marvin said, following.

“Oh, now you say thanks?” Jackie joked.

“Hey I’m not—I just didn’t connect—”

“It’s fine, Marvin, it was a joke.”

“Oh.”

Jackie smiled at him. “You need to get out more. But maybe stick closer to the shoreline.”

Marvin nodded. “Sounds like a place to start.”


	17. Siren Song

Jameson woke up to the sound of someone rummaging about in the storage room. He started to drift off again, assuming Marvin was doing some late-night magic work. But then he heard something shatter, and immediately went on high alert. Marvin would never break one of the jars. They were difficult enough to come by, since they either needed to be left behind by humans or made by a merm glassblower, the latter of which was extremely hard to find these days. So…if it wasn’t Marvin, who was it?

He pulled himself out of the sleeping area he’d made on the floor of the house, shaking sand off his back. Glancing back at Marvin’s kelp bed, he saw the angelfish merm was absent. So maybe he was in the storage room and the glass breaking had been an accident. Still, Jameson felt uneasy. He crossed the main body of the house, swimming out into the open.

The storage room was another structure similar to the house. It was also made of rock slabs, though this one had more…solid walls than the house, with just one entrance in comparison to the house’s four. Marvin kept all of the magic stuff he rarely used in there, so that it wouldn’t clutter up the living space. Jameson poked his head inside. The storage area was lit up with more spelled sea stars, all of which were glowing orange. But with the solid walls, it was still fairly dark.

There was…someone moving about the room. For a moment, Jameson thought it was Marvin after all. But this someone…they didn’t have Marvin’s fins, the ones attached to his upper arms and back of the tail. Jameson squinted, trying to get a closer look at them. This strange merm was looking through the items they had stored, rummaging through the various spells, power stones, and other magical materials.

And then Jameson saw it. He glanced down at the floor for a moment, and there…there was Marvin. Lying on the lake floor, not moving at all. Jameson shrank back, and let out a small gasp.

The strange merm suddenly whirled around, and caught sight of Jameson hovering in the doorway. The merm’s glowing green eyes narrowed, and he lunged forward. Jameson instinctively cried out, though it was no more than a dull rasp, and turned to get away. But he wasn’t fast enough. He felt the strange merm grab him by the shoulders and drag him inside the storage room. Jameson lashed out with his tail, and felt it connect. The other merm cried out, letting go.

And not a moment too soon. The storage room was suddenly lit up as the strange merm let off a pulse of electricity. Jameson caught the end of it, and it was enough to send him tumbling through the water until he slammed into the inside wall of the storage area.

Didn’t he hear something recently about electric merms? The memory came to him in flash. Jack mentioned it, not too long ago. He remembered thinking it was odd, that he ran into an electric eel in the ocean. Could this be that same eel?

His train of thought was interrupted when the eel snarled, once again diving toward Jameson with electricity sparking along his tail. Jameson ducked down, letting the eel run into the wall. Okay, whether or not it was the same didn’t matter. What mattered was this guy was rummaging through their stuff, and had probably hurt Marvin! He had to get him out of here!

Jameson was already close to the ground, but he crouched even lower. His tail lashed through the water, side to side. The eel recovered, turning on him, and Jameson glared back. “Just hold still and maybe I won’t kill you,” the eel hissed. Jameson rolled his eyes. The eel snarled, and lunged again, only for Jameson’s tail to connect solidly with his chest. He yelped at the sting, drawing back. Jameson smiled. Two stings would not be good for the eel’s health, but hopefully he’d catch on soon and leave.

Unfortunately, it appeared the eel was very, very stubborn. He backed up, then suddenly darted forward, sailing right over Jameson’s head and crashing into the various lining the shelves of the storage room. Jameson shot upward, swimming right over to where the eel had crashed. He hesitated, though, not willing to touch the electric merm. His eyes darted around the various materials stored in the room, and noticed a long, thin staff-like object leaning against a wall. He grabbed it, spun it around in his hand, and jabbed it at the eel.

The eel yelped, dodging the attempted jab. Jameson persisted, poking at the eel, hoping to eventually drive him out. “You little shit!” The eel growled. He attempted to grab the staff, but Jameson sharply withdrew it and whacked him upside the head. The eel cried out, lunging forward. Jameson, anticipating this, swiped the staff, knocking the eel sideways into a different shelf. 

“You fucking—!” The eel grabbed the nearest object, a glass jar, and hurled it at Jameson. When he managed to dodge it, he picked up another object and threw that as well. “Stop it!” The eel yelled. “What, you think this is funny?! You’re having a laugh at this, aren’t you?!” He picked up and threw a few more things. Jameson ducked and dodged, hitting a few of the objects away with the staff. “Well it’s not!” The eel screeched, throwing a stone slab. “I can see you smiling! Stop it!” Another jar shattered against the wall. “Stop it!” He picked up a spherical stone, not bothering to notice how it started to glow acid green. “ _Stop it!_ ”

The stone suddenly flared brighter, beams of green light weaving through the water in a hypnotic pattern. Jameson’s eyes widened, and his posture loosened, relaxing. Those patterns…they were so…beautiful…

Anti suddenly blinked, surprised. He hadn’t expected…well, he hadn’t expected the stone to glow in the first place, and he definitely didn’t expect the stingray to just…stop. When he told him to. He looked down at the stone in his hands. It was perfectly smooth and round. The rock was a strange, reddish color beneath the green glow, bigger than a fist but smaller than a human sports ball. The runes on its surface were iridescent, glowing and shifting like oil on water, or patterns in a soap bubble. Anti held the stone in both hands. “ _This is strange…_ ”

His voice sounded…different. There was an echoing resonance to it, haunting, but…somehow beautiful. Like a choir singing, or the melody of a whale song. Anti looked back up at the stingray, still hovering in the water, eyes fixed on the stone in his hands. “ _Drop the staff,_ ” Anti said.

The staff slid right out of the stingray’s hands. He didn’t even seem to notice as it landed on the lake floor.

Anti tilted his head. The light coming from the stone shifted, shades of yellow and turquoise joining the green. “ _Come closer._ ”

The stingray swam closer obediently. He stopped inches from Anti, not concerned at all about being so close to the same merm that was attacking him earlier.

“ _Well this is new. Stay right there_.” Anti swam in circles around the stingray, watching as his eyes tried to track the stone while also staying in place. A smile split Anti’s face. “ _What do you think would happen if I told you to follow me anywhere? Would you do it?_ ” The stingray nodded dully. “ _Even out of this lake?_ ” Another nod. “ _What if I told you to dive into a shark’s maw? Would you do it?_ ” Another one, no hesitation at all. “ _What about if I told you to feed your friend here to the barracudas? Would you do it?_ ” And another one.

Anti chuckled. “ _This is very, very new. And very interesting_.” He turned the stone over in his hands, causing the light to shift. He moved it to one hand, and reached forward with the other. “ _Hold still, I want to…_ ” His fingers brushed along the back of the stingray’s wings, running along the skin.

Jameson shuddered, blinked, and suddenly snapped to attention. This eel was—! His face went white. The tail lashed out and his arms flailed as he darted across the room to press against the opposite wall.

The eel yelled, cradling a spot on his upper arm where Jameson’s tail hit him. He backed up, looking shocked at Jameson’s reaction. But then he smiled. Laughing and hugging the stone close to his chest, he turned and fled, darting out of the storage room and heading towards the river that connected the lake to the ocean.

For a moment, Jameson stayed where he was, shaking. His mind flashed through the few moments where the eel had touched his wing. It was a gentle stroking, but he couldn’t forget…couldn’t forget all the times the humans had poked and prodded his back and wings, hearing them encourage others to do the same, saying “it’s just like petting the rays at the aquarium!” but it wasn’t, it wasn’t, they were never gentle despite the warnings, and nobody seemed to care, he never wanted to feel human hands again—

After a few moments, Jameson uncurled from his position floating towards the ceiling of the storage room. Okay…the eel was gone. That was good. He’d broken some of the stuff. That was bad. He’d taken something. That was doubly bad. Marvin would be—oh no, Marvin!

Jameson darted towards the lake floor. Marvin was still there, lying on the sand. Jameson shook his shoulder, getting no response. He was alive, right? If he was dead, his body would be floating. But that’s assuming he’d been dead for a while—Jameson shook away the morbid thoughts. He pressed his fingers to Marvin’s neck, finding a pulse. He let out a sigh of relief.

After taking a moment to bring Marvin back to the house and get him comfortable, Jameson returned to the storage room. He did his best to clean up the mess the eel had made, returning objects to their appropriate shelves and sweeping all the broken glass jars into a corner (there wasn’t much he could do about the contents, but he did his best.)

What had that eel wanted? To steal something? Well, if that was the case, he’d succeeded. But what was that stone? Jameson didn’t know a lot about the items kept in storage, Marvin hadn’t gotten around to teaching him about that yet, but maybe he could figure it out. Marvin labelled everything in here, if he could find a label that didn’t match up to anything else…

And he did find a label, written in Marvin’s handwriting on a piece of preserved kelp: _Siren Stone. Spelled to entrance anyone the holder wishes, lure them in and convince them to do things they wouldn’t normally do. Unfortunately, it only works for people who have siren blood, which apparently I don’t. So I guess it’s just gonna sit down here forever hahaha._ It was signed with Marvin’s signature, his name followed by the four dots on his mask.

Jameson’s heart sank. From what they knew of this eel merm, he meant them harm. He was the last person who they’d want to have siren powers. But he’d gotten away with something that gave him exactly that. Jameson shivered, remembering the feeling of being under the spell’s control. It was so…warm…and wonderful…which must’ve been why it was dangerous.

He grabbed the label and headed back towards the house, to see if Marvin was awake yet. They needed to let everyone know about this immediately.


	18. Cave-In

“Hey Sam! Look at that!” Jack poked his head around a branching formation of staghorn coral. Sam followed suit, swimming around to hover by his head fins. They were staring at a mound of rock on the ocean floor, watching as steam emitted from the top of its peak. “Volcano,” Jack whispered, grinning. 

Sam turned around, swimming backwards a bit. She butted the back of Jack’s head.

“What? Oh, you’re scared.” Jack petted the side of Sam’s scales to calm her down. “Don’t worry, we’re far enough away. We can just watch.” The ground rumbled. Jack grabbed the side of the coral to keep himself steady. Once the rumble calmed down, he looked back at Sam. He was pretty sure she was shaking. Sighing, he said, “Okay, we’ll skirt around the edge a bit farther back. Happy?” Sam flipped in the water, obviously happy.

The nearby area was populated by round, lumpy rocks with various kinds of coral rooted on their surfaces. The rocks had holes in them, tiny pockets caused by air. They must’ve been leftover from previous volcanic eruptions. Some of these rocks were piled haphazardly, causing tunnels and caves. Jack poked his head into one of these caves. He whistled. “These are big,” he muttered, swimming inside. He felt around the edges of the cave. “I bet I could sleep in here.” Sam butted against his head again. “Hey, I’m not saying I _will_ , just that I could.”

The currents shifted. Jack paused, looking back over his shoulder at the cave entrance. The ground started to rumble. Jack gasped, grabbing the edges of some of the holes in the rock to steady him. But it wasn’t enough. Soon, the ground was heaving and bucking. It was all he could do to hold on tightly.

_Crash!_

Jack screamed as something crushed his tail. The ground and rocks shook for a few moments more, much less intense as it gradually stilled. Once he was sure there was no more movement, he fell to the ocean floor, gills working heavily. He twisted around to see the entrance of the cave had collapsed. He wriggled, gasping as he felt the rough texture of the rubble dig into his scales. His and the end of his tail were still outside the cave, but the rest of him was stuck inside. “Sam?” he rasped.

The tiny little discus popped up in front of his face, immediately nuzzling against his cheek to reassure him. Jack sighed, relieved. “Okay. You’re okay, here we go.” He looked back towards the entrance of the cave. There were tiny chinks in the rubble, letting in a little bit of light from the water outside. He turned back to Sam. “Do you think you can fit through those gaps?”

Sam swam back over to the rubble, hovering next to the largest of the chinks. Jack nodded. “Okay, looks like you can.” He tried to turn around, yelping when his tail suddenly flared with pain. “Alright, Sam, you have to go get someone. Jackie, maybe, I think he can lift this up. You got that?”

Sam tilted in the water, acknowledging that she understood. Turning back to the rubble, they swam through the gap, disappearing outside. He hoped Sam would be fast…well, actually he knew she wouldn’t be. She wasn’t a fast swimmer, and they were some ways away from anyone’s home. Jackie’s was the closest, but he was out frequently. Almost all the time, in fact. Jack sighed. He was going to be here for a while…he just hoped that it wouldn’t be too long.

The water outside darkened. Jack settled down onto the rock floor of the cave and tried not to move his tail too much. Time passed, and Jack got bored. He tried humming an old human song he’d heard before, but forgot how the tune went. He tried talking to himself, but he ended up going in circles about how he was stuck in this cave, and his thoughts got darker with each ring around the cycle. Slowly, he started to notice how hungry he was. He hadn’t eaten too much before setting off on his latest journey, and now he was really regretting that.

Eventually he fell asleep.

…

“Jack! Say something!”

He jolted awake. The water around him was pitch black. He’d had the strangest dream…someone was singing to him, and there was this bright green light, wonderful to look at…

“Jack!” Something touched the end of his fin, and his tail jolted instinctively. He made some kind of small sound, something between a squeak and a groan. A big portion of his tail was numb where the rubble was on it, and the parts that weren’t numb were aching.

“Oh, thank gods.” He recognized that voice. Jackie. “Jack, I’m going to get you out of here, do you hear me?”

“Y-yeah…” Jack groaned. “I hear you…” He felt something bump against his head. “Sam?”

“Sam came to get me,” Jackie said. “Gods, you are so lucky I was home. Now lemme just…” Silence for a moment. “Tell me if you…i-if this hurts or something.” The rubble shifted a bit, and Jack yelped. “Sorry, sorry!” Jackie immediately backed off. “I can…um…”

“N-no, just go ahead,” Jack insisted.

“I’m trying to not…I’m trying to be gentle—”

“Just do it!”

Jackie grunted, and the rubble suddenly lifted off Jack’s tail. He quickly pulled it up to his chest, just before Jackie dropped the rubble. “Well, at least it’s not, uh…on you, anymore.”

Jack hissed. “Y-yeah.” He laughed a bit. “Now you can just throw all the rocks away without worrying.”

“Yeah, uh. Good point.” The pile of rubble shifted as some of the lighter pieces were tossed away. The inside of the small cave remained completely black, so Jack could just wait and listen to the grating sounds of shifting rubble. “I don’t think there’s any way this can collapse further,” Jackie said. “What…what happened, anyway?”

“The volcano was rumbling,” Jack explained. “Shook at just the wrong moment, when I was inside. Entrance fell.” He paused. “It’s not still shaking, is it?”

“That mountain? Uhh no, I don’t think so. Better be quick anyway. Can you try pushing some of the rocks from your side? Start from the top.”

Through their combined efforts, they managed to clear a space large enough for Jack to wriggle out. He stared at the environment around him, taking in some of the glowing coral and the dark waters that indicated it was night time. Squinting, he could barely make out Jackie’s figure in the darkness, treading water before him.

“How you feel?” Jackie asked nervously.

Jack immediately swam forward and tackle-hugged Jackie.

“Whoa!” Despite the size difference between them, Jackie was knocked backwards with the force of the hug. “You good there, dude?”

“I’m fine, I just…gods, I got really fucking…I’m fine,” Jack laughed nervously. He could feel Sam swimming in circles around his head, the water moving as she passed. “Thanks.”

“Alright. Glad to hear you’re okay.” Jackie patted Jack’s back, careful to avoid his dorsal. “You…are okay, right? Like, you need to see Schneep or anything?”

“Um…I dunno. Maybe?” His tail did feel a little bit…weird.

“Well, better safe than sorry.” Jackie shrugged. “Man, seems like I’m saving a lot of people lately.”

Jack chuckled. “That’s your job. And you’re good at it.”

“Damn right,” Jackie grinned. “Now c’mon, let’s go.”


	19. Magic Tricks

“Come on, Marvin! You’re so slow!”

“Excuse me, I am exactly as fast as you. Do you even know where you’re going? This is _my_ lake!”

Chase turned back to look at Marvin. “Well, it’s just along the shore, right? If we go around, we’ll eventually see everything.” He poked his head above the water, blinking. “Oh! Good, they’re here!”

“What? Who? Can you fucking tell me anything?” Marvin surfaced as well. There was now one of those human devices—a car, he’d heard them called—pulling up to one of the lake’s beaches. As he watched, a human woman with dark brown hair stepped out of the car, followed quickly by two human children. The human woman opened a compartment on the back of the car—was it a boot or a trunk? He’d heard both—and pulled out three foldable chairs, handing one to each of the human children. Marvin looked over at Chase, about to ask what this was about, when he noticed Chase sinking lower into the water, face turning red. Marvin grinned. “Oh…this is your _girlfriend,_ isn’t it?”

“Shut up, she’s not my girlfriend anymore,” Chase muttered.

“Oh, but you had two little fries together, didn’t you?” Marvin nudged Chase’s arm.

“Well, we didn’t mean to. But, uh…yeah.” Chase sank lower into the water. “I thought, uh…they wanted to meet my sea witch friend, as they said.”

Marvin blinked. “And you didn’t tell me about this until now…because?”

“You would’ve said no.”

“You don’t know that.”

The two human children were talking to each other, laughing. They looked out into the water. Chase popped up, waving. The human woman glanced over at the same time. She smiled, and waved back. Chase’s face grew more red, and his hand sank down. The two children giggled. 

“Aren’t you gonna say hi to her?” Marvin asked.

“Um…maybe another time,” Chase mumbled. “Hey, where’s Jameson?”

“He went down the river to the ocean. Good thing he did, too, I don’t know how comfortable he’d be right now.”

After a few more minutes, the two children and their mother had set up three chairs on the beach. The mother sat down in the biggest one while the two children waded into the water. Eventually, they waded into deeper water, and then ducked underneath. Chase dived under, and Marvin followed. Below the surface, the two children had traded their legs for tails. They were now swimming clumsily through the water. Upon seeing Chase, the gold-and-white one zoomed on over, ramming into Chase’s chest. “Hi Dad!”

Chase laughed. “Hi, Ser.” He looked over at Marvin. “Hey Marv, this is Sereia, my daughter, and Muirin, my son.” He pointed back over to the black-and-white one, who was swimming closer. “Kids, this is my friend Marvin, he’s the one I was telling you about.”

“Hello,” Marvin said, waving. “Well…you’re a cute pair of butterflies.”

“Butterflies?” Muirin asked. “But we’re fish.”

“You’re butterfly fish,” Marvin explained. “Wonder how that happened, why aren’t you clowns like Chase?”

“Is that rude?” Sereia asked, whispering to Chase.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Chase chuckled. “Anyway, my working theory is that if Stacy were a merm, she’d be a butterfly fish, and they take after her.”

Sereia swam through the water up to Marvin. “So you’re magic?” She asked. “Cool! Can you show me something? Do you need a wand or anything?”

“Hey I have questions too!” Muirin protested. “Like, where do our clothes go when we turn into mermaids?”

“Merms,” Marvin corrected. “And I don’t know. Halfling magic is a little…unique.” A smile flashed across his face. “And I can show you something, but we need to go down deeper so I can pick something up.”

“A wand?!” Sereia asked excitedly.

“I have no idea what that is. Come on, you can see better down deeper.”

The group of four swam down to the center of the lake. It took longer than it might’ve normally, with the two children still learning how to swim and going slowly. Once they arrived, Marvin fetched a power stone from the house. A smaller one, just powerful enough to show the kids how the stored energy could move the water, changing the currents to lift up rocks and plants from the lake floor. It was one of the simpler things one could do with magic.

“Cool,” Sereia breathed. “Can I hold it?”

“Oh. Um, yeah, just be careful.” Marvin handed the power stone to Sereia. His eyes remained fixed on it as she turned it over in her hands.

Muirin leaned over to look at the stone. “Are these like, merm words? Like your weird language?”

“It’s the alphabet, yes. But it’s not any merm language that’s spoken.” Marvin held out his hand, and Sereia reluctantly handed the power stone back over. “Think of it like a language specific for magic. The stones are carved with words that allow them to store energy, and use that energy for specific purposes. This one will move the water around.”

“Does it have to be rocks?” Sereia asked.

“Yeah, I’ve always wondered that, too,” Chase piped up from where he was floating in the back. “And do they have to be smooth?”

“The smoothness is the real key here. It can be any shape, as long as it’s smooth.” Marvin tossed the stone high in the water, catching it as it fell back down. “And it doesn’t have to be a stone, but stones are the best because they’re durable, and last a long time.” He looked at the kids. “Any other questions?”

Muirin raised his hand. “If we’re part merm, do we go through merm puberty or human puberty?”

“Muir!” Sereia gasped.

“What, Mom already talked to us about it, and I want to know!” Muirin protested. “I am not looking forward to human puberty, do I have to do it twice?”

“Um…” Marvin blinked. “I’ll be honest, I have no idea.” He shrugged. “Maybe you’ll go through both at the same time, depending on which form you’re in. Also, aren’t you like twelve? Hasn’t this started for you already?”

“Humans start later,” Chase added. “Also they keep aging after 30 at the same rate.”

“Wait, what?” Sereia’s head shot up. “Are we gonna live forever?”

“No, just a bit longer.” Chase frowned. “Do you guys know exponents yet? Or logs?”

“What?” Sereia and Muirin asked in unison.

“The fu—frick are you talking about ?” Marvin asked.

Chase groaned. “Human high school math. Still haunts me. I was gonna say that merms age slower the older they get after 30. Like one of the log or exponent graphs. But I guess I’m the only person who understands that here.”

“Oh no, do I have to learn that?” Sereia asked. “Noooo, I don’t want more math.”

“I’m so sorry, but it’s going to happen,” Chase said sympathetically. “But look on the bright side: you’ll catch on quicker than I did. I just jumped straight in with no previous reference.”

“I like math,” Muirin muttered.

“Well I like magic more!” Sereia said stubbornly. “Can you teach me, Mr. Marvin? Please?”

“Hmm…well, I already have an apprentice,” Marvin considered. “And you’ve been here a while.”

“Yeah, your mom will be getting worried,” Chase said.

At Sereia’s look of disappointment, Marvin smiled and said, “You can show up another time, when you’re a little bit older, and I might teach you a little.”

“When I’m sixteen and can drive, I’ll come back over here and see you again,” Sereia said stubbornly.

“I look forward to it,” Marvin said. “But now, you should be getting home.”

Chase swam over to the kids. “C’mon, guys. Like I said, your mom will be getting worried.”

“Aw, okay.” Sereia sighed.

The two kids grabbed one of Chase’s hands each, and the three of them swam up to the surface. Marvin stayed below, waving goodbye as they vanished. They were sweet little kids. Not that he had a lot of experience with those, not even when he himself was just a fry. But they seemed nice. He hoped they’d visit again soon.


	20. The Escapees

Jameson had never been in the ocean before. Or at least, not the open ocean with no shore in sight. It was a bit strange, having no high spot of land to anchor his vision on. But at least Marvin had provided him with a map, spots marked with the places he needed to visit.

This place was interesting, Jameson decided, looking around at the fish as he swam among spots of coral and seagrass. He knew Marvin had problems with the open space, but he was quite the opposite. Usually the lake was big enough to be comfortable for him, but sometimes he just had to get away. So he was glad to go on errands to pick up some magic stuff for Marvin.

Pushing aside a few strands of seagrass, Jameson found a small group of pebbles, piled in a pyramid. Aha, that marks the place. Jameson began digging under the pebble pile, finding a bit of sea glass, flat and large as his fist, glowing faintly orange. Picking it up, Jameson put the piece of glass into his woven bag, where it clinked against several other glasses. Apparently these were a source of magical energy, giving mages a bit of a boost on their spells. Marvin’s mask had four pieces embedded in the forehead for that exact purpose.

Checking the map again, Jameson noticed that Marvin had marked down the spot where one of his friends lived. Huh. He didn’t recognize the name, it must’ve been one he hadn’t met yet. Well, he was already close by, why not meet them now?

Apparently this friend of Marvin’s lived in a cave, but upon arriving at the area marked on the map, Jameson didn’t see a spot for a cave. He was now on the edge of a reef, with staggered rock formations dotted with coral and various underwater plants. It was rare to see a coral reef so far from a coast line; Jameson assumed merms were somehow responsible. He wouldn’t be surprised to hear that this had been a home, made by merms for merms, that they had to abandon for whatever reason. Well, it was no matter. The environment didn’t seem to be suffering at all.

Sighing, Jameson settled down to lie on top of a mostly-clear, flat rock, squeezing in between coral formations and letting his tail dangle over the side. Maybe he’d read the map wrong. But no, he’d been following it pretty well so far. Or maybe Marvin’s friend had moved out of the cave and Marvin hadn’t made a note of it yet.

Suddenly, something slapped the end of his tail. Jameson shot upwards and backwards, coughing out a raspy yell in his surprise. He went flying backwards through the water, looking for anything that could’ve done that.

And then he saw the hand. He barely caught it, in fact, as it was withdrawing back into a hole under the rock he’d been lying on. Jameson stared at the dark hole, and waved a bit. The hand returned, followed by another, and soon the upper half of a merm was sticking out of the hole. “Ah…hello?” said the new merm.

Jameson waved again. _Hello,_ he said. He glanced back down at the map. _Are you…Marvin’s friend?_

“Yes, I know someone by that name. Wait.” The merm squinted, looking Jameson over. “You speak with your hands…and you are a ray, but not one I have seen. Are you Marvin’s new apprentice? Jameson?”

 _Yes!_ Jameson nodded enthusiastically. _And you are…_ Another glance at the map, checking the name Marvin had written there. _H-E-N-R-I-K?_ He spelled out the name.

“Most people will call me Schneep, but yes.” The merm climbed fully out of the hole—the cave entrance. Jameson started, surprised to see Schneep had tentacles instead of a tail. He’d never seen that before. “It is a form of my family name.”

 _That’s interesting, J_ ameson said. _I don’t remember my family name. I think it starts with a J._

“Oh. So, technically, we could call you JJ?”

Jameson smiled. _I suppose you could. Nobody’s done that before, though._

“It could be a nice nickname,” Schneep chuckled a bit, but it faded quickly. “Now. What do you want?”

 _What do I…want?_ Jameson asked, confused.

“Yes, what do you want? Why did you come out here?” Schneep pressed. “Did Marvin send you to get something from me?”

 _No…_ Jameson signed slowly. _I was just in the area, and wanted to meet you._

“Oh. Alright then.” Schneep glanced around, as if expecting something to appear. “Well, you have met me now. Unfortunately, today is…not a good day. You can come back…tomorrow? Or the next day.”

 _Oh._ Jameson…didn’t really know how to respond to this. He just stared.

Schneep took his silence as a sign to move on. “Well…it is settled, then. I will see you then.” And with that, he turned around and disappeared back into the small cave entrance.

Jameson realized what was happening a little late. _Hey wait!_ He signed, despite the fact that Schneep’s back was to him and he couldn’t see the signs. After watching the other merm swim back below ground, Jameson rushed over to the cave entrance. He wasn’t done! He wanted to keep talking, one conversation doesn’t mean they’ve gotten to know each other yet. Jameson dropped the bag and his map by the entrance and began squeezing into the tiny hole.

He immediately knew this had been a bad idea. The tunnel down into the cave was tight enough that he couldn’t really use his wings—couldn’t even extend his arms. He tried to wriggle forward, but wasn’t getting a lot of traction. The rock walls were closing in, tight, tight, he could barely move. Panic quickly set in, and he tried to struggle, memories flashing through his mind, of that net, of all the tiny glass boxes, he had to get out, he couldn’t breathe—someone was touching him, no, no get away—!

Jameson popped back out into the open ocean, landing on his back on a sandy patch of ocean floor. Gills working hard, he flipped over and tried to bury into the sand, covering himself halfway before hitting solid rock. He closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths in the water.

“Are you okay?” Schneep was hovering nearby. Not too close, though. “Did you get stuck? Sometimes that happens, but you look like you would fit. Did you get hurt?”

It took a moment for Jameson to respond _. Not hurt,_ he signed shakily _. I just…don’t like small spaces. And I didn’t expect that tunnel._

“You thought it would just open up right away? I see.” Schneep settled onto the ocean floor, tentacles finding spaces to weave in between coral formations. “Well, now you know. I promise you, it is much bigger inside than the entrance would have you think.”

Jameson looked up at Schneep. _Did you push me out?_

“Yes, I did.” Schneep paused. “Should I not have?”

 _No, you did good, I just—can you warn me next time?_ Jameson asked _. I don’t like being touched a lot._

Schneep nodded. “I see. Well, I do not like being watched a lot.” His eyes suddenly lit up with…something. Recognition, maybe, or understanding. “Sometimes…things happen that we would rather forget.”

Jameson stared at him, then asked, _Humans?_

“Yes,” Schneep said quietly. “You too?”

Jameson nodded. _How…how did you get away?_

“Luck, I suppose,” Schneep said. He tried to play it off with a shrug, but it turned into a shudder. “They were trying to move me somewhere else, and the lid on the smaller tank slipped up. I jumped out of the…ah, I do not remember the word. Like a car, but something more specific…” He fell silent. “That was five years ago.”

 _Mine was just last year,_ Jameson signed slowly. _But it…it started three years before that._

“You jumped out of the tank, too?”

_No. There was another human. She opened it, cut the rope, and carried me to the river._

Schneep’s eyes widened. “Really? I…did not think that…” He trailed off again. And then he shook his head. “But of course, they would not all be like that. Chase has his human partner, and that is…different.” He wasn’t sure what he was trying to say. “Three years? Human years?” When Jameson nodded, Schneep shivered. “I am…sorry.”

 _Well…it’s not going to happen again_ , Jameson said firmly.

“Of course it isn’t. We would not let it.” Schneep nodded. After a moment’s hesitation, he inched a little closer. “Do you…want to go do something? I can show you around the reef, maybe?”

 _I thought you were busy,_ Jameson asked, confused.

“No, I just did not want to talk to people,” Schneep clarified. “But now I do. We can discuss…things.”

Jameson nodded again, and shook himself out of the sand. _I think I would like to discuss…things._

“Let’s go then.” Schneep offered his hand. After a moment, Jameson took it. “Come, I will show you around. There are some interesting formations here. Apparently some merm group made this reef back in the shipwreck times.”

I knew it, Jameson said, smiling. There’s no way this could be natural.

Schneep swam upward, guiding Jameson. The afternoon passed slowly, and the two of them did end up discussing…things. Things that they couldn’t discuss with the others.

Eventually, Jameson had to go back to the lake, but he promised to visit again. Schneep promised he would, as well. And they parted ways, each already looking forward to seeing the other once more.


	21. The Way Things Are

It was a new moon that night, meaning the waters were almost completely black. Anti didn’t mind. He never relied too much on his eyes, anyway. Regularly, to help him navigate, he sent out electric pulses into the water that would bounce off objects, returning to tell him where things were. Of course, that didn’t help tell him where his destination was. And he admitted that he only had a guess as to what that destination even was. He’d already checked out two previous guesses, and found them empty. But they did say third time’s the charm.

He knew it would probably be near the shoreline, so he skimmed around the land, trying to stay close. Every so often he’d send out one of those electric pulses, looking for anything odd. In his hands, he held the stolen siren stone close to himself.

He passed by a river mouth, and shivered. He would never say it out loud, but he had to admit…he wouldn’t know what to do if he had to go inland. To fresh water. Going up the river to the mage’s lake had already set him on edge, but that was something he _had_ to do. After seeing the shark talk with that angelfish merm, he had to see if this group knew anything about him. This…Anti wasn’t sure he could justify this as something he had to do. No, this was something he wanted to do. To see if he could, but he could get along without it well enough. But…he was so curious about this.

Anti rounded a large rock formation in the water, the kind of which would stick out onto the surface. These were getting more and more frequent, and larger as well. Perhaps humans hadn’t explored this particular part of their coastline too thoroughly. Good. They already stuck their noses into places they didn’t belong. Though, merms weren’t any different. One day a river might be peaceful, deep enough that a whole colony of fifteen merms could hide from the world easily. The next, another colony could come swimming up from the ocean, claiming to be in danger of discovery, and when you opened your home to them they’d take advantage of the moment of weakness and—

 _Bump!_ He’d run into another rock formation, having been too distracted with his own thoughts to send out another pulse. Anti backed up, scowling. Shifting the siren stone to one hand, he rubbed his head with the other. Lesson learned. Look where he was going. And stop thinking about.. _.that._ He really should’ve figured that out by now.

Resuming his search, Anti soon found that the shoreline was dipping, forming a bay. And as he swam over the ocean floor, he found that a large sandbar was separating the water of this bay from the rest of the ocean. Swimming over the sandbar, he found the water much shallower. Ah. So it was a lagoon. A lagoon that was likely untouched by humans, given the rocks at its entrance. What better place for a merm to hide?

The water was…fresher, here. Less salty. Anti paused for a moment, taking a deep breath of the clear water. Then he shook himself, and started to move. No time for that. What, does he think he could afford to take a minute to bask in the fresher water? No. There were predators out there, animals and humans and other merms. If he let down his guard for a second, if he tried to relax at all, if he let that other eel come close mistakenly believing they would stick together after the rest of the colony was gone—Anti rubbed his neck, feeling a ridged scar. _Stop thinking about that._

The point was, you had to strike first, or else you wouldn’t be around to strike ever again. This strange group of merms was a threat, and he had to eliminate it. Or maybe…someone else could do that for him.

His electric pulse returned to him, bringing with it news of a small pool off the main body of the lagoon. Anti grinned, detouring over to the pool. There was a small, rocky wall separating it from the rest of the water. The wall had a gap in it, much like a doorway. Anti squeezed through, and found that the water in the pool was glowing. No, there was something in the water, millions of tiny things, glowing bright blue. Phytoplankton. They must be a permanent fixture in the pool, and maybe also along the lagoon’s waves where they met the beach.

In the center of the pool, there was a bed of watery weeds, and curled up on the bed was a merm, green tail folded in in himself, yellow dorsal fin running along his back. The area around the merm was filled with random objects, some human-made, some merm-made, some natural, a random clutter of things. There was a small fish in the pool as well, hovering in the water, unresponsive. Asleep. But able to wake up at any moment.

Anti glared, slipping through the water over to the center of the pool where the merm lay, fast asleep. He’d recognize this one anywhere. That obnoxious green and blue, those yellow fins. He stopped swimming right above the sleeping merm. He crept closer. And closer. The merm’s face was inches from his own. He could make out the expression on that face, and he scowled. So peaceful. So happy. So…unguarded. Didn’t these merms know any better? What gave them the right to be…like this? Why could they be…like this…when he knew the sea was out there, ready to strike?

The other merm shifted, perhaps sensing a disturbance in the water currents around him. His eyes opened, and he was staring right into Anti’s. For a moment, he seemed shocked. And then he opened his mouth to cry out.

“ _Shush._ ” The siren stone began to glow. “ _Just calm down_.” What was this merm’s name again? He thought he remembered. “ _Calm down…Jack. Look at the nice lights._ ”

Jack’s eyes flickered through the water, but eventually their movements stilled. The siren stone’s light began twirling, mixing with the glow from the phytoplankton to form a hypnotizing blur of patterns. Jack sighed, his eyes clouding over.

Anti grinned. This maybe would’ve worked better if he’d managed to find the shark one, or the two from the lake, but the shark lived somewhere far away, and he was not about to risk going back to the lake. This would work. “ _Jack…I’m about to give you some instructions. Listen to them carefully. Remember them. Seal them in your memory. And then you’ll forget I was ever here. Until it’s time to follow those instructions. Do you understand?_ ”

A small, slow nod.

“ _Good._ ”


	22. Lingering Trance

“You should meet them, Jackie, I think you’d really like each other.”

“Oh really? I dunno, I don’t know if I’m good with kids.”

Chase smiled. “Dude. You are, trust me. Besides, they’re twelve—sorry, thirteen in our years. They’re twelve in human years. That’s not really a ‘kid’ age, that’s almost a teenager.”

“Hmm I’ll think about it. Oh, sandbar!” As they swam over the sandbar, skimming just over, Jackie smacked it and caused particles to fly into the air. Chase spluttered. Jackie grinned. In response, Chase hit the sandbar with his tail, causing sand to fly in a wave towards Jackie. “Hey—eck!” Jackie coughed. “Alright, you win this round.”

It was the middle of the day, and the lagoon water was sparkling sky blue. The day was shaping up to be very nice, the perfect sort of day to go out and do something with friends. That is, if he was still at home and hadn’t gone out exploring already.

They’d reached the rock pool where Jack made his home. Jackie knocked on the rock wall and poked his head into the pool. “Hellooo?”

Something hit him in the face. “Akk!” Jackie backpedaled, shaking his head. He caught sight of something tiny and green darting back and forth in front of his eyes. “Sam? What’s up?” The tiny discus just kept darting back and forth. “Uh…” Jackie looked back. “Chase? Can you tell me what this is about?”

Chase swam forward, watching Sam swim around. “Umm…no, sorry.” Chase shrugged. “Sam may be smarter than your average fish, but I can’t understand her. I’m a clownfish, not a discus like Jack.”

“Oh yeah. Hey Jack!” Jackie swam into the pool. “Jack, why’s Sam acting weird?”

Jack was curled up, seemingly asleep on his bed. But at the sound of Jackie’s voice, he rolled over and yawned. His eyes opened and immediately landed on Jackie.

“Hey.” Jackie waved. “Sorry, did I wake you up?”

“I mean…yeah.” Jack yawned again. “I don’t think I slept well last night…”

“Oh…sorry.” Jackie backed up. “Chase and I wanted to go out or something. We were gonna ask if you wanted to come, but if you’re still tired—”

“What? No, are you kidding, of course I want to go out!” Jack stretched his body and grabbed his backpack, laying nearby. “Besides, sleep is for the weak.”

“I think Schneep would disagree with you,” Jackie chuckled, turning around and leaving the pool. Sam ran right into his face again. “Oof! Sam, c’mon. What’s up with you?”

“Hmm?” Jack followed Jackie out of the pool. “She’s scared of something. I dunno what’s up, though. Sam, it’s okay, it’s just Jackie and Chase.” Jack reached forward, but Sam swam away, going around him back into the pool. “Huh. Well, alright, you can stay home.”

“Hi Jack!” Chase waved.

“Hi Chase.” Jack waved back. “So, what were you thinking of doing?”

“Huh. I dunno. I don’t think either of us thought that far ahead.”

“Hey!” Jackie protested. “I thought—okay, actually, you’re right.”

Jack chuckled. “Maybe we could stick close to home? Swim around the rocks and see what’s up. I haven’t checked them out in a while.”

“Sounds good to me.” Jackie said, smiling. “Let’s go.”

The rocks around the entrance to the lagoon were giant, almost the size of small islands. And a few even had small plants growing on their surface. The three merms swam around the rocks, finding shells on the shores that were nice enough to keep. But eventually, Jackie grew bored. “Hey, want to go out to the kelp forest or something?” he asked.

“Yeah, one moment, I gotta put these in my bag.” Jack set his backpack down on a nearby rock, unzipping it and starting to dump shells inside. “I can sort through the keepers later—wait. What’s this?” He reached further down inside and pulled out a long, thin, human-made blade, made of rusted metal. “I don’t remember…” He trailed off.

“Um…Jack? Dude?” Chase swam closer. “You okay? You look a little…out of it.” When Jack didn’t respond, he reached forward and grabbed him by the shoulder. “Hey—”

Jack’s eyes suddenly flared a bright glowing green. He whirled around, slashing with the human knife. Chase yelled, swimming back. A cloud of red drifted through the water as Chase pressed his hand against a large slice on his chest.

Jackie was on the other side of a large rock, but he immediately jumped to attention when he heard Chase cry out. The smell hit him a moment later, and he darted around the rock. Upon seeing the drifted red in the water, Jackie rushed forward and tackled Chase, knocking him through the water.

“I’m not prey!” Chase yelped.

“I know!” Jackie yelled. He turned around to see Jack, eyes still glowing, charging at the two of them with the human knife. Jackie flicked his tail, pushing Chase downward while swimming upward at the same time. Jack barrelled right through the spot where the two of them had been just a moment before. He slowed to a halt, then spun around, glaring at the other merms. Quickly, he darted upward towards Jackie.

“Jack, the fuck are you doing?!” Jackie managed to dodge Jack’s attack, ducking below the swing of the knife. He tackled Jack around the middle, trying to knock him off guard. Only for something sharp to pierce his dorsal fin. Jackie screamed, and let go of Jack, swimming to the side. Another cloud of red stained the water, crimson trailing from a wound on his dorsal.

Jack didn’t let up, following Jackie, the knife at the ready. Jackie’s eyes widened, and he turned to get away. He swam through the water, mind racing as Jack pursued him. This had happened so suddenly! What was going on?! Why were his eyes glowing like that? Magic? What kind of magic would make someone attack their friends?!

It didn’t matter right now. Jackie had to figure out a way to get Jack to stop without hurting him. A hint of an idea came to him. He headed towards the rocks in the water, glancing backwards to see if Jack was still coming after him. Seeing that he was, Jackie began weaving around the rocks, sticking close to them and turning tightly. Jack kept up the chase, mimicking his movements. Jackie grinned, and headed to swim around one of the larger rocks. He swam around it in circles, once, twice, and on the third time he sped up. Jack may have been a fast swimmer, but Jackie was much faster. Within a few moments, Jackie went all the way around the rock, and soon _he_ was behind _Jack._ Before Jack could react, Jackie lunged forward, grabbing Jack’s tail.

With a surprised yelp, Jack spun around to look at Jackie. He slashed with the knife, but Jackie leaned back, barely avoiding it. His hand shot up and grabbed Jack’s wrist as it passed, squeezing it. Jack gasped, and dropped the knife. It clattered against the rock, but Jack wasn’t deterred. He darted forward, other hand shooting out, curled in a fist. Jackie caught that as well.

On the sidelines, Chase watched as the two of them began to struggle and wrestle, tumbling through the water. It only lasted a few moments, but eventually they strayed too close to the rock. Jackie pushed, hard, and Jack’s head snapped backwards, smacking against the rock. He went still.

Immediately, Chase swam up to the two of them. “What happened?” he asked. “Why were his eyes glowing?”

“I-I don’t know,” Jackie said, panting in the water. “I mean, magic, but…what?”

“We need to bring him to Marvin,” Chase decided. “He’ll know what’s up with this.”

“Yeah, he will.” Jackie paused, staring at Jack while he floated in the water. “Did he…hit his head _too_ hard?”

“I…don’t know. I mean, I hope not, but…it looked bad.”

“Okay. Okay.” Jackie nodded. “We need Schneep too. Here.” He passed Jack to Chase, who grabbed him and held him close. “You go to Schneep, get him to look at that and take care of that slash mark. I’ll go get the freshie. We can meet in the seagrass meadow between the reef and the river.”

“You were hurt too!” Chase protested. “Can you swim with a hurt dorsal?”

“I’ll be a little wobbly, but it’s fine. Well, i-it hurts, but it’s fine,” Jackie put on a brave smile. “You’re more important. That looks deep, and you lost a lot of blood.”

Chase unconsciously poked the wound on his chest and winced. “What, you smell that? With your blood-smelling nose?”

Jackie raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I can smell that it was a lot of blood. Which means that if there are sharks in the area, they can smell it too. So we should both hurry.”

Chase nodded. “Well, it’s in the same direction. Let’s go.”

The two of them set off, silent for a few moments. Then Jackie asked, “Why’d you shout out ‘I’m not prey’?”

“Um…well, I dunno,” Chase mumbled. “I just thought…that would activate your shark instincts or whatever.”

Jackie rolled his eyes. “I have instincts, but I also have a brain. Something that’s more debatable for you.”

“Hey!” Chase started to protest, but then he winced. He held Jack closer.

“Um…let’s just hurry,” Jackie repeated.

“Yeah, let’s.”

They picked up the pace, soon parting as they headed for their respective destinations.


	23. In the Seagrass

The seagrass meadow was a vast expanse of long, green plants, covering the ocean floor and waving with the current. The only clear spot was a large, flat rock lying right in the middle of the meadow. Two merms were circling around the rock, a third one lying on its surface, asleep. A small fish darted downward to nuzzle the lying merm’s face.

“The problem is not the bump to the head, if that was the case, he would be awake by now,” Schneep was saying. “There is something more to this.”

“Yeah, I’d say so.” Chase shivered, and unconsciously rubbed the bandage on his chest. “Something’s wrong.” He looked around. “Where’s Jackie and—oh, there they are.”

There were two merms in the distance, swimming closer. Once they got closer, it was clear who they were. Jackie was holding Marvin’s hand, pulling him along. Marvin was clearly falling behind as he couldn’t swim as fast. Chase waved at them. Jackie waved back. Marvin did not, too busy holding onto his bag.

As soon as they were in earshot, Jackie began talking. “What’s been going on? How is everyone? Is that Sam? When did she get here?”

“I went back and got her soon after we separated!” Chase answered. “And I’m fine! Not so sure about Jack…”

Schneep looked up as the two others pulled up to the little group. He scowled. “Jackie, why are you swimming around with a bleeding hole in your dorsal?”

“It’s not a hole! Right?” Jackie tried to turn around to look at the dorsal fin on his back, but wasn’t able to, and ended up swimming in circles for a little while. Schneep rolled his eyes, and started digging around in his human bag. He pulled out a small plastic jar, then grabbed Jackie’s hand and pulled him over. “Wh—Schneep, calm down, it’s not too bad. It doesn’t even hurt anymore!”

“That is probably a bad sign,” Schneep muttered. He swam up into the water, hovering over Jackie, and unscrewed the lid of the plastic jar. “Hold still,” he said, reaching inside the jar and coming out with his fingers covered in a yellowish cream. Quickly, he pressed his fingers to the wound on Jackie’s dorsal fin. Jackie gasped, instinctively trying to squirm away, but Schneep sat down on top of him, wrapping his tentacles around his tail. “I said hold still!”

“Excuse me, I know you’re the healer, but I fail to see how poking the bleeding area will help!”

“I am trying to put this on it!” Schneep waved the plastic jar. “It is human-made, it will prevent infections. I used it on Chase, and he is fine.”

“Yeah, but can you at least warn me before you go sticking your suckers—”

“Can you guys shut up for a little bit?!” Marvin snapped. “I’m trying to concentrate.” He’d taken out some materials of his own: a small power stone, vaguely hourglass-shaped, and a stick with some woven rope attached to it. He pushed the end of the stick into a small hole in the stone and tied the rope around it to secure its place. 

Chase peered over his shoulder. “What’s that?”

“It’s a dowser, it’ll detect magical energy,” Marvin explained. “Now shut up and let me do this.” He took a deep breath, and whispered a few words. His eyes started to glow seafoam green, as did the stone and the stick combination. Marvin jumped higher into the water, now swimming above Jack, parallel with him. He adjusted his grip on the dowser so that the stick end was pointing at Jack, and slowly swam back and forth, back and forth. After a few passes, he stopped, with the dowser pointing at Jack’s head. The glow faded from his eyes.

“Okay. So…what’s up?” Jackie asked, trying to sound casual while Schneep was still on top of him, now rummaging around in the bag and pulling out a roll of bandages.

“I think…okay, so I picked this up the first time I checked,” Marvin said. “But I thought…well, I didn’t think it was…possible. So I checked a few more times, but it’s still there.”

“What’s there?” Chase asked. “Gods, bro, be more specific.”

“‘Bro’? What does—nevermind, not important.” Marvin set down the dowser, now looking closer at Jack. “Well it felt like…like siren song.”

Everyone froze. Even the seagrass flowing in the water seemed to still. “But…that is impossible,” Schneep said slowly. “The sirens are extinct.”

“I thought they were a myth,” Jackie added.

“They’re not a myth, and they’re not _exactly_ extinct either.” Marvin folded his arms. “The original sirens were these bird-like beings that lived in the Mediterranean, they could lure in human sailors with their singing and then they’d eat them. Those guys are gone. They were very prevalent and powerful in the ancient era, but soon their numbers started dwindling, I dunno why, and by the time the monarchy era rolled around there were very few of them left. So they started, um… _mingling_ with merms.”

“A bird-fish being? That couldn’t have worked out,” Chase muttered.

Marvin smiled a bit. “Well I mean, imagine merms with wings. But soon the wings faded away, and ‘sirens’ were just merms with hypnotizing voices. They were the main driving force behind the shipwreck era, y’know.”

“Alright, fascinating history lesson, thanks for sharing,” Jackie said. He shook his tail, and Schneep huffed, but swam away, leaving his dorsal fin bandaged. “But the point remains, how is Jack under a siren song? Sirens aren’t around anymore!”

“Um…well, I mean…I guess they aren’t?” Marvin laughed nervously. “You see…just because the hypnotizing voices faded away, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still merms out there with siren blood. And uh…with certain means, these merms could…uh…y’know. Find a way to…hypnotize people.”

Jackie narrowed his eyes. “You’re squirming, freshie.”

“No I’m not,” Marvin protested, despite the fact that his tail was flicking back and forth anxiously.

“Marvin,” Chase said in a low voice. “If you know what’s going on, you better say something.”

“Okay, alright, I got it!” Marvin raised his hands in surrender. Still, he hesitated. “Well…in my lake, as part of my, y’know, magic stuff, I had this…thing called a siren stone. That could, like, allow a merm with siren blood to entrance people. And it…uh…it got stolen.”

“What?!” Jackie shot over to Marvin, who backed up. “And you didn’t tell us this?!”

“I didn’t think it was important!” Marvin protested. “And I didn’t think it was related to any of you! Just—but yeah, it was! A few weeks ago. Some eel merm broke into my storage.”

“Wait, an eel?!” Jackie’s eyes widened. “A green one? Glowing eyes?”

“Well…yeah.” Marvin drooped. “I…should’ve told you, shouldn’t I?”

“Jack talked about a run-in with an eel,” Chase remembered.

“And I had one, too.” Jackie grunted, frustrated, and punched the water. “What’s with this guy?! Why is he like that?!”

“So this eel could apparently activate the siren powers with the help of this stone thing,” Schneep summarized. “He must’ve used it on Jack, making him attack you. And now…Jack is asleep, and showing no signs of waking up. That must’ve been the eel, too.” He frowned. “This is bad. If Jack does not wake up soon, he will not be able to eat anything, and…” he trailed off. Sam nuzzled Jack’s face more.

“Well then we better find this eel guy, then!” Jackie said. “Um…Marvin, your lake is safe, can you keep Jack there until we find him? No wait, bad idea, we don’t know if fresh water will be bad in this state. Schneep, what about your cave?”

“Yes, I can look after him.”

“But what if we can’t find this guy?” Chase asked. “How do we wake Jack up?”

Everyone went silent. “Maybe…he will wake up on his own?” Schneep said tentatively.

Chase shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He paused, thinking. “Humans have ways of keeping asleep people healthy. Maybe…we could…look into that? I-I can…ask. My, uh…partner. You know?”

“Sounds like a good backup,” Jackie said, nodding. “But we know where this eel is. This trench place, I know how to get there, I’ll check it out.”

“Alright, sounds like we are all set,” Schneep said. “We should move now. Marvin, come with me, we will monitor Jack.”

“Got it.” Marvin started digging around in his bag. “I’ll send a magic message to Jameson, let him know it’ll be a while before I get back.”

“And I’m off to the trench,” Jackie said. “Chase, you want to come and be back-up? Just in case.”

“Of course! I dunno how much help I’ll be, though.”

“Better than nothing,” Jackie says. “We’ve all got our tasks. Now let’s go!”

They swam off. Yet, despite their efforts, nothing would happen that day. The eel was not in the trench, despite Jackie and Chase doing their best to explore it. Jack would not wake up. Time passed, and nothing new occurred. And now? They were stuck, unsure what to do.


	24. Complications

It was supposed to be a normal day out in the lake. Jameson was out, swimming around the perimeter of the lake to see if anything was new. And there was. He could see a familiar orange-tailed merm swimming back and forth, anxiously pacing circles. Chase was so far inside his own head that he didn’t notice Jameson until he tapped him on the shoulder.

“Aaaak!—Oh, it’s just you.” Chase laughed, relieved.

 _Sorry for scaring you,_ Jameson said. _But also, what are you doing here? I didn’t know you were visiting today._

“Yeah, I’m…um…” Chase bit his lip. “You know the, uhm…emergency situation going on with Jack, right?”

Jameson nodded. _Yes, but what does that have to do with you being here?_

“Well…you know, it’s been a couple days now, so I asked Marvin to send a message to my, uh…you know.” Chase poked his head out of the water. “Just to see if, like, she knows anything about human technology that could help. I mean, I would’ve usually checked back home, but she and the kids are still over here for vacation, so might as well meet them here.” His expression brightened. “Look!”

On the shore of the lake, a human car was parking. Jameson popped out of the water to see it, then ducked back under. _Was she…supposed to bring the fries?_ He asked.

“No…” Chase’s expression darkened again when he saw the two kids climb out of the car, followed shortly by their mother. “Did I ask Marvin to tell her to not bring them? Or did he forget? Or—”

 _Chase, calm down, it was probably just a miscommunication,_ Jameson said. _Oh look, they’re getting in the water._

“Oh shit, no, not right now.” Chase dived underwater, and Jameson followed shortly afterward. The two kids noticed them, and swam right up. “Hey guys!” He waved, trying to seem cheerful. “I, uh…wasn’t expecting you!”

“Hi Dad!” Sereia waved back. “Mom got the message! It was cool! It kinda reminded me of Harry Potter, when they send messages with their Patronuses.”

“I…don’t know what that is, but it sounds neat.” Chase smiled. “Listen, there’s been some kind of…mistake. Not that I don’t want to see you, but I just needed to talk to your mom real quick. About, um…important stuff.”

“Aw…” Sereia deflated. Muirin, next to her, patted her shoulder. “I wanted to try to swim down the river to the ocean. We drove by it to see where it goes yesterday, but I bet it’s different in the water.”

“Well, you can stick around and I’ll do that with you after I talk to your mom,” Chase said. “For now, um…” He glanced around, and his eyes landed on Jameson. “Oh! Jay, do you mind taking them down to the river mouth? So that I can just meet them there.”

 _Me?_ Jameson asked, startled. _With your fries?_

“Great, thanks!” Chase gave Jameson an apologetic smile, then darted away.

 _Wait, Chase! Come back!_ It was no use, Chase had gone back over to the shoreline, and was now out of the water talking to the mother. Jameson sighed, then looked at the two kids. _Well…hello. I don’t suppose you—_

“Why are you waving like that?” Sereia asked.

Muirin nudged her. “Ser, don’t. I think that’s sign language. You interrupted him.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Sereia suddenly raised her voice. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t recognize! The sign language! I don’t know! What you’re saying!”

Jameson winced. I can hear you, he signed. Realizing they wouldn’t know what he was saying, he pointed to his ears and made a thumbs-up sign, then tapped his throat and made a thumbs-down sign.

“Sorry! I mean, uh, sorry.” Sereia lowered her voice back to its normal volume. “I thought you were deaf.”

“I think he just can’t talk,” Muirin said. “Right, Mister…Jameson?”

Jameson nodded, giving another thumbs-up.

“Okay.” Muirin swam up a little closer. “You’re a stingray, right?” He waited for Jameson to nod before continuing. “Wow, that’s cool. And a little scary. Mom works at the aquarium back home, she told us all about a lot of fish, including stingrays. I bet your sting really hurts.” He looked back at Sereia. “Hey do you remember the stingray skeleton pictures we saw?”

“Oh my god, those are super cursed,” Sereia said, laughing. “So you have bones in your, uh…flappy bits?”

“They’re called wings, Ser.”

“Well it’s still cursed, no matter what they’re called.”

Jameson watched as the two of them proceeded to bicker for a bit. These kids talked a lot, and they talked pretty fast, too. He was having trouble keeping up. It might be best to just guide them over to the river mouth like Chase suggested. Sighing, Jameson turned, drifting away a bit. He turned back to see the two kids still talking. He took a deep breath, and made a harsh sort of whistling sound. The effort made his throat hurt, but it got the kids’ attention. The two of them swam over. He gestured for them to follow him and started swimming. Thankfully, they caught on.

“So…can you talk?” Sereia asked. “‘Cause that sounded like the merm language sounds. Do you just not want to?”

Actually, the whistle was all he could do. But he didn’t know how to communicate that to the kids without them knowing MSL, so he just made an “eh” sort of shrug, hoping they would get the point.

Muirin seemed to catch on. “So…does it hurt to talk? Like laryngitis, but forever?”

Jameson had no idea what laryngitis was, but he made a so-so gesture and smiled.

“Oh. Okay, then.” Muirin paused. “Why?”

Now that was a story that was too long to convey with just gestures, and he wasn’t sure the kids would even want to hear it. He frowned, and didn’t answer.

“You’re making him uncomfortable, Muir!” Sereia slapped her brother’s arm.

“Well you were probably making him uncomfortable earlier when you yelled at him.”

“I thought he couldn’t hear me! You’re just asking a lot of personal questions. Maybe it’s something he doesn’t want to talk about. Also I think it would be hard, even if he did wanna talk about it, since we can’t understand him.” Sereia looked over at Jameson. “I’m so sorry for my twin.”

Jameson smiled. He wanted to say it was fine, just to be a bit more…delicate next time. But of course, he couldn’t. So he just waved away her concerns.

They soon arrived at the mouth of the outgoing river. Here, there was a gentle current, no more than the equivalent of a breeze on land. Jameson settled down on the river bottom, content to watch the kids and wait.

“Ooo!” Sereia swam over to the riverbed. Just like the ingoing rivers, the bed here was steeper than just a beach, rocky walls dipping sharply. “Wow, I guess this river really is deep! Mom said it might be when we drove along it.”

“Well, I don’t think we should be afraid of deep water anymore. Not now that we know we can swim and breathe in it,” Muirin said.

“Wow, that’s brave! That’s really unlike you, Muir,” Sereia teased.

“Hey! I can be brave!”

“Yeah, you show up to that English test without having your notes to study before it starts!”

Well, if anything else, you could say the kids were very enthusiastic. Jameson smiled. He relaxed a bit, and let his eyes drift around his surroundings. There was nothing new at the river mouth. Or at least…it appeared there wasn’t. Until he noticed that a few large rocks had been piled up. Frowning, he lifted off the ocean floor and swam over to look at it. Was this something Marvin did? Why?

There was a small gap in between the rocks. Jameson peered inside, seeing that the riverbed had been dug into, forming a tiny cave. In fact, the cave was just the right size for a merm to—

Two glowing green eyes appeared inside.

Jameson backed up, startled. He recognized those eyes. He had to get—

“Oh, it’s you. You’ve caught me, now _you might as well stay._ ” Suddenly, a pattern of swirling lights appeared, just below the green eyes. The lights flickered and shifted, inviting anyone to come closer. Jameson felt a spike of panic, and tried to back away. But the lights…were so pretty…

Only a few minutes later, Chase appeared at the mouth of the river. “Sorry about that, guys, but it’s all taken care of…now…” he trailed off. Where were the kids? Where was Jameson? Had they not actually gone over here?

But no, there was something on the river floor. Chase swam down to inspect it. Soon, he realized what it was. A piece of fabric that looked like it was from a shirt. A shirt like one Muirin had just been wearing, but now ripped and caught on a piece of rock. His eyes widened. He grabbed the torn fabric, and turned to swim back to shore.


	25. The Institute of Marine Biology

The buildings were backed right up against the coastline. Docks of boats pushed out into the open sea, and a shoreline covered in pebbles stretched out from the back entrance of the building up to the waves. Several humans were bustling about on this shoreline. The two merms poked their heads out of the water to watch them.

“Oo, look, seals!” Marvin pointed at a cluster of rocks, where a group of seals were indeed lounging. “You think there are any selkies there? Should we say hi?” He glanced back at his companion. “Schneep?”

Schneep didn’t seem to hear him. He was fixed looking at the large, sprawling complex of buildings. Humans scurried about. He sank further into the water, clutching Jack—still asleep—to his chest. “Maybe this was not a good idea.”

“Maybe,” Marvin agreed. “But it’s the best one we have right now. We can’t take care of Jack when he’s stuck like this. We’re lucky that Chase’s human girlfriend had connections here.”

“Yes. Lucky.” Schneep glared in the building’s general direction, making no move to get closer.

“Hey, if you want to go home, you can,” Marvin offered.

Schneep was shaking his head before Marvin even finished the sentence. “No. I am not leaving Jack alone with them.” He paused, taking in the buildings again. “I-I-I can stay.” His voice shook.

“Alright, if you’re sure.” Marvin swam closer to the shoreline. Here, it dropped almost directly into the water, without much slope. “Chase said the human we’re looking for would be wearing yellow.”

“Like that one?” Schneep lifted a hand out of the water to point at a tall human with long dark hair, wearing a bright yellow shirt and less bright yellow shorts.

“Um…yes, exactly.” Marvin looked back at Schneep, who still didn’t seem eager to get close. “Hey, you stay here, I’ll go check to see if they’re the one.” He went underwater once more, swimming closer to the human standing on the shoreline. The human who was scanning the ocean, as if they were looking for something. Marvin popped back out of the water right up at the shore. “Excuse me?”

The human started, looking down. Once they saw Marvin there, their eyes widened. They crouched down. “Did you just make that sound?” They asked in a hushed voice.

“That sound? Well, I was talking. Wait, you can’t understand me, can you?” Marvin realized.

“It is you!” The human’s eyes lit up. “Wow, I never believed—I mean, I know Stacy said, and she’s not a liar, but…wow.” They grinned, and stuck out a hand. “My name’s Roxy.”

Marvin looked at the hand, then back up at the human—Roxy. “Um…yeah, I don’t get this.”

Roxy seemed to quickly pick up that he was confused. “Sorry, guess you don’t shake hands, huh?” She chuckled. “That’s okay. Anyway, it’s nice to meet you. Where’s your friend? The one who needs help?” She scanned the ocean, and caught sight of Schneep, sticking his head out of the water to watch. “Hello!”

Schneep gasped, and disappeared underwater. His heart was suddenly racing. He held Jack even closer. Was he really about to go through with this? Hand his friend over to strange humans? Last time he trusted strange humans it hadn’t ended so well…

“Schneep? Are you okay?” Marvin had ducked back under to talk to Schneep. 

Taking a deep breath, Schneep nodded. He reminded himself that this was their only plan, and Chase apparently trusted this human friend of his friend. So might as well get it over with. He popped back to the surface and swam up to Marvin and Roxy the human. Not saying anything, he lifted Jack out of the water so the human could see his face.

“Hmm…I see.” Roxy reached forward. Schneep jumped and backed away. She froze where she was. “I just want to see his face. Take his pulse. Is that okay?” After a long pause, Schneep sighed and swam forward again, letting Roxy brush some strands of hair out of Jack’s face. She pressed two fingers to a spot on Jack’s neck. “Hmm…that’s probably about…forty-five beats per minute?” Roxy looked at the two merms. “Is that normal for you?”

Marvin looked at Schneep. “Is that normal?”

“For sleeping, yes,” Schneep nodded. Then he looked at Roxy and nodded again so she would understand it’s normal.

“Hmm…” Roxy pursed her lips. “Well…I know how to take care of fish, not fish-human hybrids, but it seems like your friend here is stable. Of course, we don’t know unless we do some kind of brain scan. Stacy said that he’s in a coma, or something? He fell asleep and won’t wake up?” She waited for the two merms to nod in response. Then she stood up. “Wait right here.” Without another word, she turned and left.

Schneep and Marvin looked at each other, then settled down to wait. It seemed like only a few minutes later when Roxy returned, now with a group of other humans. Schneep’s eyes widened when he realized two of them were wearing white coats. He yelped and tried to go underwater again. Marvin caught him by the arm. “Schneep! What’s wrong?!”

“It is them! Why are there more of them?! Why are they wearing that?! You cannot trust the ones in white! Let go of me!” Schneep struggled to swim downward, but Marvin’s grip was tight. “You are so tiny, how are you so strong?!”

“Everyone’s tiny to you, Schneep,” Marvin muttered. “Now calm down! They’re friendly!”

“You don’t know that,” Schneep hissed, holding Jack tight. “You can never know that.”

“Well, alright then, but remember!” Marvin wrapped his arm around Schneep’s torso. “If we don’t find a way to take care of Jack while he’s asleep, he’s going to die.”

Hearing it so plainly stated was like a blast of cold water. Schneep stopped trying to swim away. He sighed, and took a deep breath of water before breaking the surface again.

Roxy was back at the shoreline, now sitting down. The rest of the humans were milling about some ways away. Seeing the merms surface, she smiled. “Thank god, I thought I scared you off. You guys doing okay?” The merms nodded in unison. “Good.” Roxy gestured at the other humans. “These guys are my friends. You can trust them. And we won’t tell anyone, Stacy told me that was important.” A soft smile appeared on her face. “We’re out here to try and preserve ocean life, we won’t do anything to jeapordize you.”

Marvin looked at Schneep, smiling. But Schneep just sank lower in the water.

“We need to take a closer look at your friend here. Can he be out of the water, or is that a bad thing?”

“Is that a bad thing?” Marvin repeated, turning to Schneep.

“It should be fine, as long he stays at least a little wet,” Schneep responded. “We wouldn’t want him to dry out.” He hesitated, then handed Jack over to Roxy. After she held him, he splashed a little bit, hoping she’d understand that he needed to stay wet.

Roxy smiled reassuringly, and gestured for the other humans to come join her. Schneep tensed, keeping his eye on Jack as the humans checked his heartbeat, breathing, and response. They talked about whether or not these signs meant the same thing in merms as they did with humans. After a while, Roxy turned back to the two merms and explained, “Your friend’s probably fine for now, but he needs food and stuff. Obviously he can’t get that if he’s asleep, but we can put him on this thing called an IV.” She pursed her lips. “But that would mean that he’d need to stay here. Inside the institute.”

“Hey d’you think he’s two meters long? Or…tall?” One of the humans suddenly asked.

“I mean, yeah? Probably? Don’t do anything yet, Johnson,” Roxy warned, then looked back at the merms. “Well? I mean, it’s up to you.”

Marvin frowned, and looked over at Schneep. “Well…I’d probably be fine with it if we could come visit, but what do you think? You’re better with this sort of stuff.”

Schneep glared at the humans. He went silent for a long time. “Honestly, I do not like it, but this might be our only opportunity, and I hate that. Perhaps we should ask the others.”

“What, now?” Marvin shook his head. “Jackie’s off who knows where, we haven’t seen Chase since the fries disappeared, and Jamie…” He trailed off. “You said this might be our only chance, we can’t waste it. But…i-if you’re not comfortable with it, we don’t have to.”

“Actually, we do have to. My comfort is not important here, Jack’s is,” Schneep said stubbornly.

“Your comfort is always important,” Marvin said softly.

“…thanks, Marvin,” Schneep mumbled. “But this is an urgent matter.” He looked back over to Roxy. “You can take him,” he said, nodding so she’d get the point.

She did. Roxy looked back over to the group of humans and said, “Okay, we’re good to go. We can—Greg, seriously?”

“What? Can’t hurt to be prepared.” A couple of the humans were pushing a large tank of water. It was on wheels with a handle, more like a cart than anything else, no doubt used to transport large fish. “I think he’ll fit in this.”

All Schneep’s resolve suddenly went out the window. His face suddenly turned white. He lunged out of the water, half onto the shore. “Wait, no! There has to be a better way to go about this!”

“Schneep!” Marvin gasped. The humans gasped as well, and Roxy took a few steps backward. “Calm down!”

“No, there has to be something else! No more glass boxes!” Schneep shivered. “Do not do this! Everyone will see!”

“Hey, um, Mr. Octopus, please calm down, it’s going to be alright,” Roxy assured him. “We’ll be sure to take good care of him.”

“Everyone will be watching!” Schneep said, distressed. “Everyone will see!” He gestured and pointed to his eyes.

“Are you…worried about people seeing him?” Roxy guessed.

“Yes, yes!” Schneep nodded furiously. “You cannot be watching all the time! What are you going to do next? Put him on land? Shock him and write down how he reacts? You cannot do that! We are people!”

“Okay, just let me…um…” Roxy looked around. “Um, Maggie, grab that tarp, we’ll put it over the transport tank.” She looked back at Schneep. “Is that good?”

“None of this is good!” Schneep cried.

“Okay, I see, just, um…do you want to come with him?” Roxy offered. “So you can see how he’s doing?”

Marvin spoke up for the first time. “What?! No! We need Schneep out here! Right?” He looked at Schneep. “…right?”

Schneep said nothing. He was thinking, considering this. After a while, he nodded.

“What’re you doing?!” Marvin protested.

“I am making sure nothing happens to Jack!” Schneep snapped. “Is it not better if there are two of us there than just one?”

“Well—but—I-I mean—” Marvin stammered. “Schneep, you can’t just leave! You’re the only healer in the area! What if something happens?”

“I am sure you can take care of it yourself. I am not leaving Jack to these strange humans,” Schneep said firmly. “Marvin, you cannot stay because you need to look for Jameson and the fries. Besides, I have gotten out of human places before, I can do it again.”

“You’ve what?!”

“Nevermind, is long story.” Schneep leaned closer to Marvin. “Just please let me keep him safe.”

Marvin went quiet for a bit. Then he sighed. “Fine. But one of us will be here, same time tomorrow, to check on you and Jack.”

“That is fine. Please do.” Schneep turned back to Roxy. “Alright. We can go now.”

“You want to come?” Roxy asked, looking for confirmation.

Schneep nodded.

A few minutes later, Schneep had managed to climb into the tank. Jack was there, still fast asleep. There wasn’t a lot of room in the small box, so Schneep leaned Jack against his chest, cradling him. He waved back at Marvin as he disappeared back into the ocean.

“Ready to go?” Roxy asked.

Schneep nodded again, and a few humans draped a tarp over the tank, hiding them from few. Schneep breathed a sigh of relief. It was never that the tank was small, he could deal with that. It was all the eyes, watching, watching, watching. Even if these humans were well-intentioned, they would still be watching. It was just what someone did when they saw something strange. Schneep pulled Jack closer, curling around him protectively. If his paranoia turned out to be justified, Jack needed someone there to look after him. And if the humans really were nice, well…it never hurt to be safe. He wasn’t about to leave his friend.


	26. Chase Alone

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this deep in the ocean. Down here, twilight was permanent. The bioluminescent plants that were usually visible had faded away, unable to grow this far down. He could barely see anything. One time he thought he’d seen something glowing, but it was a lure attached to an anglerfish—which were a lot freakier than the one from Finding Nemo, and also crazy enough to try and attack something six times their size. He’d gotten way off track by the time he managed to lose that one.

Chase sighed, and dropped down to the rocky ocean floor. He’d been swimming all day, and now he was exhausted. Briefly, the idea of maybe giving up and going back crossed through his mind. But he immediately shot it down. What, go back? And abandon the search? Leave his _children_ alone out here with that monster of an eel? No, no. He couldn’t do that. He hadn’t been around for them for twelve years, the least he could do was protect them now.

He let himself rest for a few minutes before getting up again. If he could see, then he could swim. So he set off, doing the same thing he’d been doing for a week now: picking a random direction and heading there. Well, it hadn’t been entirely random at the start. He’d figured that if this eel liked to hang out in a trench (or apparently in a cave on the side of the river, according to Marvin), then he might like to hang out somewhere deeper. So he headed down. And down. And down. And at this point he had no clue where he was and he might actually be killed by some deep-sea predator before he ever made a difference—

Nope. Stop that. Chase shook off the morbid thoughts before they started to spiral. If he thought like that, he’d just end up lying face-down on the ground with no energy to do anything. Negative thoughts were a lot like the pressure of the ocean: if you let them pile up they’d crush you. He just had to keep going. And search…the entire ocean…tens of thousands of feet deep…too many miles wide to count…

His hand brushed against something, snapping him out of this train of thought before it crashed. Chase stopped, going back to examine it. It was something small, caught in between the rocks on the ocean floor and waving in the current. He grabbed it, pulling it free, and immediately recognized the texture. This was cloth. Human-made cloth, so much more tightly-woven than merm-made. What would a scrap of human cloth be doing this far down? Unless…

Chase didn’t dare to let himself hope. His eyes scanned the area, but he couldn’t see anything unusual. Just more rocks and the occasional shape of a sea creature passing by. If he went in a circle around this…and widened the circle with each search…he should eventually find something, right? Maybe? Clutching the fabric scrap tight, he started circling, scanning the ocean floor with his eyes and one hand.

It was a good idea he decided to search by touch, as well. There was a spot on the ocean floor, surrounded by rocks, that didn’t look any different than the ground around it. Until Chase put his hand down and found that there was no ground there at all—it was just a hole. Chase gasped, staring down into the darkness. There was nothing there. Just…blackness. But maybe…“Hello?” he called. “H-hello? Is anyone there?”

No answer. But then, there was a faint sound…like someone shouting in the distance. He could’ve been imagining it, but somehow he didn’t think he was. He took a deep breath of water. “I’m coming in there! Please don’t…kill me!” And he ducked inside the hole.

There was no way to tell how big it was. Chase swam forward, going deeper. It was just black. He didn’t know water—or anything—could be this dark. If he hadn’t kept his hand running along the rock wall, he wouldn’t be able to tell if he was making progress at all. Maybe…this wasn’t what he was expecting. Maybe this was the lair of some sea creature—or even a deep-sea merm. Though there were debates as to whether merms could survive so far down, there were also reports of sightings. They were comparable to the human idea of “cryptids.” And just like cryptids, he didn’t want to run into one when he was alone in the dark.

But then he heard the noise again. The sound of people shouting. No, not just people. The voices sounded young. They echoed, meaning that at some point the cave must’ve widened out enough to allow the echoes to happen. Chase stretched, extending his tail into the water and straightening his arms, while still keeping his hands rooted to the rocky wall. Well, he could extend to his full length without hitting anything. So it must’ve been at least bigger than six feet plus however long his arms were. He scrunched back up against the wall, and continued swimming forward. “Hello?! Is anyone there?! Sereia, Muirin, is that you?! Jameson, maybe, are you here?!”

Eventually, the sounds stopped echoing, but he could still hear them. He tried extending out again, this time finding the end of his fin brushing the rock wall before he even straightened his arms. “Hello?!” He called. “Anyone?!”

Suddenly, there was a light. It started as green, but soon it faded to a deep, pulsating red. Chase blinked. The rocky tunnel he was in was now lit up, and the light was coming from…a stone. A stone glowing crimson, held by someone with glowing green eyes whose outline he could see in the light. “ _What are_ you _doing here…?_ ”

Chase blinked, suddenly shaking. But he couldn’t back down. “Where are they?”

“ _Where are who?_ ”

“You know who!” He snapped. “Tell me, o-or I’ll…I’ll…”

“ _Go on, I’d love to hear what you have to offer.”_ He couldn’t see it, but he knew the eel was smiling. “ _Oh? So silent? I guess you have nothing after all. Maybe it would be best if you were to leave…no wait! I know! Leave, and go find a shark to kill you!_ ”

“Are you insane?!” Chase gaped. “No!”

The eel fell back a bit, seemingly taken aback by that reaction. “ _I’m not insane_ ,” he said after a while. The silhouette of his tail curled, swishing through the water. “ _I’m just surviving, with any means I know how. It’s all your fault. If your little group hadn’t come after me, none of this would’ve happened._ ”

“We ‘came after you’? What kind of paranoid fucking bullshit are you on?! You went after us!”

“ _It’s. Your. Fault._ ” The eel snarled. Then suddenly, his voice calmed. “ _Though maybe I’ve gone a bit too far. I know why you’re here. You want some certain someones back, don’t you?_ ”

Chase felt his heart crack. “Y..yes. Please. Where are they?” No answer. He raised his voice. “Where are they, Anti?!”

“ _Oh no, let’s not get ahead of ourselves_ ,” the eel said smugly. “ _Though I love that you know my name. Did the shark tell you that? I knew I shouldn’t have answered that question…anyway, what’s in it for me?_ ”

“You…” Suddenly, Chase felt anger rise in his throat. “You motherfucking—”

“ _Be careful, there_.” Green lightning snapped along Anti’s tail. Chase could feel his hair raise even this far away. “ _What if…I told you to do something?_ ”

“If you think I’ll do anything for you after you’ve hurt and kidnapped my friends and family, you must be a few coins short of a chest.”

“ _Well, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to the little elvers, would we?_ ” Anti asked. “ _Or whatever you call your fish children. The point stands._ ”

Chase felt his heart stop. He stared at the eel’s silhouette, at his glowing green eyes, and knew that he would do anything. “No…” he whispered, slumping in the water. “We wouldn’t. What…what do you want from me?”

Laughter. “ _Glad we’re on the same page!_ ” Anti said, delighted. “ _I’m sure we can come up with something to benefit the both of us. Hm…yes, I think I got it. Listen carefully._ ”

A few minutes later, Chase crawled out of the hole in the bottom of the sea. He swam upward, and didn’t look back.


	27. I'll be There for You

Jackie didn’t fall into a deep sleep. Or at least, his deep sleeps didn’t last as long as they did for other merms. He was more likely to close his eyes and lie down for a few hours, then open his eyes again feeling perfectly rested. All this meant was that when the rocks near his resting place fell, clattering against each other, he immediately bolted up into the water.

“Ahck!” Chase backed up, knocking more rocks down the slope with his flailing tail.

“Oh…” Jackie slumped, relaxing from his fight. “It’s just you. Did I scare you? Sorry.”

Chase smiled shakily. “Y-yeah…a little. Did I scare _you?_ Sorry if I did.”

“Nah, it’s okay,” Jackie waved away his concern, settling back on the sandy floor. “Dude, it’s the middle of the night. What’re you doing here?”

“I just…nevermind, it’s nothing. I can take care of it myself.” Chase looked around. “Why do you live in a hole?”

Jackie rolled his eyes. “I’ve told you a thousand times before, it’s not a hole. It’s just a small dent with pebbly sides. And it’s so it’s harder to sneak up on me. Which…you were doing?”

“I wasn’t sneaking up on you,” Chase protested. “I just…was in the area and wanted to see if you’re here. Because you’re usually not.” Chase swam backwards through the water. “And you are. So…I-I’ll just go now.”

“You doing okay, Chase?” Jackie asked, concerned. He didn’t want to point out that this was perhaps the first time he’d seen him in a week, in case that upset him. But he’d be lying if he said the fact wasn’t on his mind.

“Yeah, just…a little rattled. Don’t worry about it. I’ll just…go now.” With a small wave, Chase turned and swam away.

That was…odd. Jackie considered going after him, but decided against it. It might just upset Chase further. So he settled down again and tried to get some rest.

Two days later, Jackie was regretting that decision. The first time he’d interacted with Chase in a week, and he’d just let him swim away without saying the things he wanted to?! What was he thinking?! He could’ve done a million better things than just gone back to resting. Who knows when he would see Chase again?

And then he headed home around dusk and saw Chase swimming nervously in circles.

“Oh! Chase! Hey!” Jackie waved, and quickly swam forward.

Chase jumped, and turned to look at him. For a moment, he didn’t look too excited to see Jackie, but then he smiled. “Hey, bro,” he said. “I, um…wanted to apologize for being weird a few days ago. So I, uh…brought you dinner.” Chase ducked down to the ocean floor and picked up a fish. “You like this kind, right?”

“Oh yeah!” Jackie closed the distance. “Yeah, I do.” He grinned at Chase, taking the fish. “Thanks, man. You, uh…want to stick around?”

“Um…sure. Yeah.” Chase nodded rapidly. “You’re gonna eat that, though, right?”

“Sure.” Jackie tilted his head, looking at Chase. He seemed…nervous. He’d known Chase for a long time, he could tell when something was on his mind. Though, of course, there was a very obvious situation going on recently. “Hey, uh…you…doing okay, recently?”

“Huh? Yeah, yeah.”

“Hmm.” Jackie swam down into the small dent in the ocean floor he called his home. Chase followed, managing to once again knock down the pebbles on the slope by swimming too close to it. Jackie put the fish down, and turned to look at Chase. “You know…you don’t have to…pretend things are alright. I know they aren’t.”

Chase paled a bit. “Wh…what do you mean?”

“Dude. Our friend is asleep and won’t wake up. Schneep’s dying with worry over him back in that human place—thanks for that, by the way, I was hesitant at first but they’re really helpful. Jameson’s gone, and Marvin’s going crazy about that.” Jackie edged closer to Chase. “And, well…I mean, your kids are gone. If I had pups and they disappeared, I’d be freaking out.”

Chase didn’t respond to this at all. Jackie closed the distance, swimming over to his side. He put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed him close. “So, I-I mean, what I mean to say is,” Jackie continued, smiling, “that you can talk to me, you know? If there’s ever anything bothering you. Okay?”

“Okay,” Chase said hoarsely.

Deciding that was enough pushing for today, Jackie smiled. “Alright, you tiny little clowny. Glad we talked.” He pushed away and swam back over to where he’d dropped the fish. “I did say thanks for this, right? Well, thanks again. I’m kinda hungry anyway.” He picked up the fish and went to rip into it with his teeth.

Suddenly, Chase jumped into action. “Don’t eat that!” he screamed, rushing right over to Jackie and smacking the fish away.

“Wh—Chase, what the hell?!” Jackie backed away. “Why—”

“There’s some shit in it!” Chase said. “I mean, not literally, but it—it’s not good. It could kill you!” Chase blinked furiously, tears welling in his eyes.

Jackie stared, confused. “Then why’d you give it to me?”

It was like a dam burst. Chase started sobbing, shoulders heaving as he floated down to the ocean floor. Jackie, though still confused, didn’t hesitate to drop down to the floor too, patting his shoulder. “Hey, no, it’s okay. I-I’m sure that whatever it is—”

“It’s not okay!” Chase cried. “I-I almost killed you! I-I almost did it on purpose!”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down!” Jackie said. “Look, I’m sure you had a good reason—”

“There’s not a good reason for this, Jackie!” Chase wailed. “I was going to kill you!”

“Alright, not a good reason, but a good explanation,” Jackie rephrased. “Chase, I know you, you wouldn’t just decide to do something like that. To…what is it, poison? Yeah, that’s not like you.” Jackie scooted closer. “Look, I can help you, if you tell me what’s going on.”

“M-my kids,” Chase said through his sobs. “H-he has my kids. I f-found them, I r-ran into him. He…he threatened them. I-I had to—to—they’re kids, Jackie, and—and they’re mine, I have to take care of them—I-I thought I could—but I couldn’t, I’m t-too weak—”

“You’re not weak, Chase,” Jackie said firmly. “This eel, this Anti…he came to you and threatened you, and you didn’t go through with it, no matter what. That’s strength.”

“I almost did…” Chase said quietly. “I almost did…”

“But you didn’t, and that’s what’s important. Hey, c’mere.” Jackie wrapped Chase in a hug. He stiffened at first, but then melted into it, crying harder. “This has been…rough for you, huh? But it’s gonna be okay. This is temporary, and we’re gonna help you get through it.” Chase clutched at Jackie, still sobbing. Jackie rubbed circles on his back. “It’s going to be okay…it’s going to be okay…shh…”

A few minutes later, Chase had quieted, though he didn’t show any signs of wanting to let go of Jackie. He sighed. “Okay…” he whispered. “How…how are we gonna fix this?”

“Well…what did he tell you to do?” Jackie asked gently.

Chase went quiet. “Kill you,” he said, voice barely audible. “And bring proof back. And then he’d let the kids go.”

“Proof?” Jackie asked, puzzled. “Like what?”

“I didn’t ask…don’t think I wanted to,” Chase admitted. “And I was…a little preoccupied.”

“Well…that siren song is a bitch,” Jackie said. “It’s not your fault.”

Chase paused. “He didn’t…sing to me. Or hypnotize me, or…whatever.”

“Really?”

“No.”

“Did he try to?”

“…I don’t know.” Chase considered this. “I…maybe? But it didn’t work.”

“Huh.” Jackie thought about that, then smiled. “Well, then. You were able to resist it. That’s strength if I’ve ever seen it.”

“Thanks, Jackie…” Chase sniffled. “But what are we gonna do.”

Jackie pursed his lips. “I have a few ideas. But we should get everyone together to decide on something. You good with that?”

“…yeah.”

“Great!” Jackie finally pulled away from the hug, looking Chase over. He gave him one last big smile. Chase was worth it, of course. “Should we go, then?”

“Yeah.” Chase nodded. “The sooner the better.”

And with that, the two of them set off.


	28. A Great Escape

“What does SOS stand for again? Doesn’t it mean ‘save our ship’?”

“Actually it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just easy and recognizable to tap or flash with a flashlight. People added the ‘save our ship’ meaning later.”

“You’re such a nerd, Muir. I mean, like a cool fun nerd.” Sereia tried to smile, but she just sighed. She flipped onto her back, floating aimlessly in the water, staring at the rocks embedded in the ceiling that let off an orangey red glow. “Anyway, can you do it?” she asked, looking over in the other two’s direction.

Jameson pursed his lips, then rapped on the nearby rock wall with his knuckles. Three short, three long, three short.

“Great!” Muirin said encouragingly. “Should we go through the alphabet again?”

“Ugh!” Sereia flailed her arms wildly. “We’ve wasted enough time on this! We should be thinking about trying to get out again!”

“Um…” Muirin looked over at Jameson, who shrugged. “Ser…not that I don’t agree with you, but…last time didn’t go so well.” Jameson nodded in agreement, pulling his tail close and hunching down. There was a noticeable scar pattern running down his left arm and wing that hadn’t been there a week before, a pattern that almost looked like branching trees, or lightning.

“Well, I have an idea.” Sereia flipped back over and started swimming the length of the cave, which took less than five seconds to cross. “It’s the weird stone thing that makes his voice do the thing that makes Mr. Jamie go all funny, right? So we take it away!”

Muirin frowned. “Um…how are we supposed to do that? We can’t get close.”

“Yeah, we can, it doesn’t work on us!” Sereia pointed out. “So we sneak attack him next time he brings the food! Then while we distract him, Mr. Jamie runs to get help!”

Muirin seemed a bit more warm to that idea, but Jameson still looked uncertain. He pointed at the two of them and held his hands close together, the universal symbol for “tiny.” Then he pointed at the cave entrance—currently blocked by a large rock—and held his hands far apart, symbol for “big.”

“Well…yeah, he’s a lot bigger than us,” Sereia conceded. “He’s like…really tall. But there’s two of us! Three if you help us, Mr. Jamie.”

“When he tried to help last time, he went all…” Muirin went cross-eyed. Jameson frowned, and very gently smacked him. “Sorry, Mr. Jameson, but it’s true.”

“What if you, like, plugged your ears and didn’t look at the lights?” Sereia wondered.

Jameson swept his arm around the cave as if asking _With what?_

“You could use your hands and close your eyes!” Sereia suggested.

“Um…I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Muirin said tentatively. “Cause like…he could smack into a wall. Just like…splat.” He punched his palm.

Jameson shuddered.

“Muir, don’t be such a pessimist,” Sereia scolded.

“I’m not being a pessimist, I’m being realistic! We need to think this through more, or else we’ll be stuck here forever.” Muirin glanced over just in time to see Jameson suddenly pale. “Or…well, not forever, just…for a while. Until Dad and the others come to get us.”

“Well, I am thinking this through. Here, look.” Sereia swam up to one of the glowing rocks, grabbing it, digging her fingers into the space where it was lodged in the rest of the rock wall. With a little bit of wiggling, she managed to pry it free. Grinning triumphantly, she swam over to Jameson. “Here. Since it’s really dark in the rest of the cave, you’ll need this.”

Shock came over Jameson’s expression. Shaking his head furiously, he pushed the stone back towards Sereia. He pointed at her and her brother, then at the door.

“That’s very nice, Mr. Jamie, but I think it should be you.” Sereia pushed the glowing rock back at him. “You’re claustrophobic and we aren’t. You’ve freaked out enough and it’s got to suck. Besides, I don’t think we’d know where to go. So you have to go get help and come back. Besides, bad guys aren’t as likely to hurt kids.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works, Sereia,” Muirin mumbled.

Jameson didn’t look happy about it—in fact he looked very _un_ happy about it—but he took the rock anyway. Holding it close, he scrunched up into a tiny ball, wrapping his tail around himself.

“Okay, Muir, you want to make the plan better?” Sereia asked, turning to her brother. “Let’s start talking about how to make the plan better.”

Muirin opened his mouth to respond, but before any words could come out, the rock blocking the door started to shift.

“Okay, nevermind then, we’ll wing it!” Sereia whisper-shouted. “Muir, c’mon!”

The two kids swam over to tread water by the cave entrance, while Jameson curled up tighter. This was a very, very, bad idea. Escape attempts never worked for him. Their previous attempt at getting out had failed, and before that…before that, with those humans and their tiny glass boxes…well, it never worked then, either.

With a grating sound, the rock blocking the entrance slowly rolled away, leaving a crack. A hand tipped with green claws pushed a plate of clams and kelp into the room.

“Now!” Sereia shouted. In unison, she and Muirin lunged forward, grabbing the arm and pulling. On the other side of the rock there was a loud surprised yelp. The rock started rolling closed before it was stopped. “Fuck!” A voice shouted, then grunted and the rock rolled open again. Sereia and Muirin yanked, pulling the arm into the room up to the shoulder. “You little shits!” The hand clutched at the water, hoping to catch something, but was unable to reach either of the kids from that angle.

An electric whine started to build in the air. Muirin gasped, dropping the arm and pushing Sereia just out of range as green lightning zapped up the arm. Silence fell as the electricity died down. After a moment, the rock started rolling open again.

When the crack was at its widest, Sereia darted forward, grabbing the arm and pulling again. Another surprised yelp. The rock rolled shut again, but not before Sereia had managed to pull Anti’s entire torso into the cave with them. He cried out as the rock rolled onto him, then glared at the kids. “Fucking kids,” he muttered. “Oh great, you get bested by the elvers, that’s intimidating.”

Sereia couldn’t help but giggle. “Whatchya gonna do about it, Zappy Face?” she taunted.

Anti glared. The green glow from his eyes grew, and another surge of electricity discharged, but Sereia backed away in time. Muttering under his breath, Anti twisted, and started pushing at the rock. It took some effort, as it wasn’t meant to be opened from this side and there weren’t a lot of handholds to dig his claws into, but with one final heave, he pushed the rock away, leaving the entrance wide open. Then he lunged.

Muirin suddenly darted forward, pushing his sister out of the way so he was tackled to the side instead of her. Sereia regained her bearings, and lunged aw well, pinning Anti’s tail to the ground. “Go!” she shouted.

Jameson hesitated. He couldn’t escape himself and not bring them with him! They were children, and he could handle this. But then Anti turned to look at him, growling. Another charge started building up through the water.

Quickly, Jameson darted towards the open entrance, slipping through just as electricity coursed throughout the water. He found himself in a dark tunnel, stretching upward into shadows. Then he heard the kids cry out in unison. He whirled around, looking back inside the cave.

Anti turned back to look at him, snarling. He reached forward and scooped up a stone that had been sitting on the floor of the tunnel. A smooth, red stone. Jameson’s eyes widened. It suddenly struck him that he wouldn’t get another chance. So he turned tail and darted away.

“ _Come back!_ ”

The voice was alluring, beautiful as a choir, but Jameson shook his head and continued onward. If he could just keep going up, he could get out of here.

“ _Alright, well could you at least slow down? Wait for me! Wait for me!_ ”

Jameson let out a harsh whistling sound to drown out the voice. Then he did it again. And again. His throat started to hurt, as much as it had when the net first wrapped around his neck and crushed it, but he only stopped once he couldn’t hear the voice on the edge of his perception anymore. This place wasn’t just a tunnel; it was a series of tunnels, twisting and joining with big empty caves at random intervals. He chose directions at random, ones that seemed to head generally upwards, and he didn’t dare to whistle again in case Anti heard him and found him. It was already lucky enough that he’d managed to outrun him.

Finally, the rock walls gave way, and the glowing rock in his hand lit up open ocean. Jameson breathed a sigh of relief. But it didn’t last long. Behind him, he could feel currents shifting, ever so slightly. Fighting a wave of panic, he threw the glowing rock in one direction, then headed the opposite way, swimming until he found a patch of sand. Ducking down, he quickly buried himself, covering his ears with his hands. And he stilled, waiting, looking around with one eye open. 

The waters were dark, and he could barely see the sight of Anti, tail snaking through the water. He watched as the eel’s eyes immediately locked onto the glowing rock, and he darted down to pick it up. Anti turned, looking around the area, and Jameson ducked his head down. Through the hands pressed to his ears, he could barely hear a voice, like someone singing, but muffled. Then, when it had faded away, he looked up again. Anti was gone.

He stayed for a little while longer, not daring to move. He…he should go back for the kids. They were all alone down there, they might be hurt…Marvin had taught him a few healing spells, if he could scratch the right symbols into a stone he might be able to use it…

But no. Anti could come back at any minute. Or maybe he went back into the cave, he didn’t know, he wasn’t looking. There was too much risk. He had to find the others, get back-up. Then he could lead them down here and they could get the kids back.

Jameson shook the sand away, rising into the water. He…had no idea where he was. But there was a definitive slope upward: gentle, but there. So he started following the slope, hoping it would lead him to shallow, familiar waters.


	29. Preparation

Gathering all of them together was a day-long chore. By the time they met up outside of the human Institute, the sun was setting, turning the ocean a fiery orange. Though they weren’t on the surface to see it. Instead, they were all underwater, clustering around the rocks in the sea. There were a few humans out on the shore, but Schneep assured them that all the humans were part of the trustworthy group. Once they were all together, Jackie did his best to explain what had happened. Chase would’ve done it himself, but every time he tried to, he just broke down and started to cry again.

“…and so Chase knows where Anti is,” Jackie concluded. “And he’s probably keeping the pups and Jameson somewhere nearby. So with that, we could stage a rescue.”

Marvin and Schneep were quiet for a moment, absorbing this story. They glanced at each other. “Well…it would have to be more than a rescue,” Schneep said tentatively.

“What d’you mean?” Jackie asked.

Schneep folded his arms, tentacles spreading out along the ocean floor. “Hmm…well, you see, we know where Anti is now,” he said, “but once we get Jameson and the hatchlings back, he will move. After all, he moved away from the trench after he put Jack to sleep, knowing that we would look for him there. So if we are going to put a stop to his bullshit altogether, we need to stop Anti when we get them back.”

Jackie blinked. “I…hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“Okay but consider this: we don’t do that,” Marvin said. “If we try to stop Anti at the same time as doing this, everything could go wrong. So we should just focus on rescuing Jamie and the fries.”

“He is just going to come back and try again if we let him get away now,” Schneep insisted. “We must act!”

“But not if it puts the others in trouble!” Marvin protested.

“Okay, we’re gonna be very careful!” Jackie interrupted. “None of us want the pups or Jameson to be hurt.” He glanced over at Chase, who’d gone very pale at the mention of the kids being harmed. “We’ll prioritize their safety, but Schneep has a point. Anti will just keep coming back if we don’t stop him. At the very least we should take the siren stone away from him. Speaking of which…Marvin, is there any way to, like, counteract that thing?”

Marvin’s tail swished back and forth as he thought about that. “I don’t know of any magic way to,” he admitted. “I know they exist, but I never looked into them ‘cause I never thought we’d have to deal with siren song.” He laughed morbidly. “Y’know I’m reconsidering that train of thought. But anyway, we can significantly reduce risk by plugging up our ears. And then…trying not to look at the lights it emits.”

Jackie nodded. “Alright. We can make ear plugs.”

“Wait.” Chase spoke up for the first time. “If…if we take the siren stone away, how do we…how do we wake Jack up? If Anti put him to sleep, what if he’s the only one who can wake him up?”

Schneep gasped softly. “Oh. Oh! No, you are right. Jack may be stable here, but he shows no way of waking up.”

“Oh…” Marvin drooped. “I hadn’t thought of that.” He paused. “Well…if any of us have siren blood, we could use the stone and try to wake him up?”

“Is there a way to test for that?” Schneep asked.

“Not that I know of…we’d basically just have to grab the stone and try to use it and see if it works.”

“Well, either way, we are _not_ letting Anti keep the stone,” Jackie said firmly. “That’s only gonna cause more trouble. You said Jack was stable, and these humans seem trustworthy, so there’s no—I was about to say ‘there’s no rush’ but I don’t know if that’s the right way of putting it.”

“No, you’re right, what’s Jack gonna do, swim away?” Marvin shrugged.

“No, I mean…” Jackie waved vaguely. “Nevermind. Words, whatever. You get it. Anyway, we have to make a plan. The most important thing is getting the children and Jameson back, and then taking care of Anti, maybe getting the stone.”

“That sounds good,” Schneep said, nodding. “I hope we get the stone and figure out how to use it quickly. There is still risk when staying here. Other humans can wander in at any minute.”

“Hey Schneep,” Chase said quietly. “You know you don’t have to stay here.”

“Yes, I do,” Schneep said. He was trying to sound firm, but his voice shook a bit. “I need to keep Jack safe.”

Chase was quiet for a moment. “Alright, if you insist.” He looked over at the others. “I think we’ll need stuff. Like, it would help to have weapons, I think. And lights. Lights are important, it’s pitch black down there.”

“I can take care of the light,” Marvin piped up.

“Great.” Jackie nodded. “So we should get started. Do you think there’s a way we could take him by surprise? ‘Cause that would give us an edge…”

A few hours later, well into the night, Marvin was heading home on his own. They’d agreed to make their move tomorrow, after they’d all had a good rest. But Marvin had the feeling he wouldn’t be getting a lot of rest that night. He could already feel the bundle of nerves.

He made it to the delta where the river emptied out into the ocean. Even though this was one of the deeper deltas in the world, it was still very shallow. Marvin had found that he couldn’t be in an upright position here; he had to always be somewhat horizontal in order to be fully submerged. The water here was well-lit, due to a combination of the depth and the full moon out that night. Luckily, there were no humans in sight.

Marvin was concentrating on swimming against the slight current when he looked up and noticed that…someone else was in the delta. He paused, squinting through the water. Yes, that someone was ahead of him…and he recognized that silhouette. Marvin gasped, and shouted, “Jameson?!”

The swimmer paused, turning around. It was him! Marvin rushed forward, tackling Jameson with a hug around the middle. The force knocked Jameson back, pushing his head out of the water. “It’s you! Oh my gods, I was so worried! Are you okay? How are you?”

Jameson could barely seem to keep up with the questions. Slowly, he signed, _You’re pinning my wings._

“Oh sorry!” Marvin backed away, and ended up poking his head out of the water too. “But oh my gods! I was so fucking—I thought—well I didn’t think, but I worried—oh my gods, are you okay? Wait, I just asked that.”

 _I’m mostly fine,_ Jameson said. _But I was looking for you! The eel hypnotized me and—_

“Oh, he _did!_ We were wondering about that! When we saw the cave he’d dug in the riverbed I knew it had to be Anti, but we weren’t sure if he’d used the stone—” Marvin suddenly gasped. “Wait, Jameson, where are the fries?! Are they okay?!”

 _Last I checked,_ Jameson said. _I don’t think the eel would hurt kids but we don’t want to push our luck. Listen, I know where he is—_

“Yeah, we do too! Chase found him like two days ago, we met up and we were discussing ways to get you and the fries back…well, I guess just get the fries back now.” Marvin beamed, clapping his hands. The movement sent splashes through the surface of the water. “But this is great! You can help us!”

 _You have a plan?_ Jameson asked. _What is it?_

“Here, I’ll explain while we swim. It’s not a good idea to hang out in the delta, sometimes humans come through here.”

The water was significantly deeper by the time Marvin had finished explaining everything that had happened while Jameson was gone. He had taken a while, backtracking back to the point which he sometimes lost. But once he was done, he looked at Jameson to gauge his reaction. Jameson, meanwhile, was silent for a while. Are you sure that’s going to work? he asked.

“Sure! It’ll be even better now that you’re here. We’ll have two people that can lead us to the location.” Marvin hesitated. Jameson didn’t seem quite as confident as the rest of them did. “You…don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” he offered.

Jameson shook his head. _No, I’m coming. I’m not leaving two pups alone with an electric eel._

“Wait…” Marvin slowed. “Fuck! We forgot about the electricity! That changes things, we’ll have to make sure not to get too close—” He turned around. “We need to tell the others!”

 _Marvin, wait._ Jameson grabbed Marvin’s arm, pulling him back. _We can tell them in the morning. It’s the middle of the night, and you said you were planning to rest. And no offense, but you look like you need it._

“Gee, thanks,” Marvin drawled. He looked back in the direction they came. “Fcuk, how’d we forget about that? That’s a big-ass thing to miss!”

 _You’ll just have to adjust your fight methods a bit, it’s going to be fine,_ Jameson reassured him.

“You didn’t look like you thought it was going to be fine a minute ago!”

 _Well, it is. If you guys think this plan is watertight, then I trust it,_ Jameson said, smiling. _You’re all smart like that._

“Aw…thanks, James,” Marvin muttered. He glanced back again. “You’re right, we…we can do this.”

 _But not if you’re too tired to swim,_ Jameson pointed out.

“Alright, I’ll try to go to sleep. You do, too.” Marvin turned back. “C’mon, we’re almost there.”

The night passed quietly for everyone.


	30. Confrontation

The night passed quietly for everyone. When the sun was halfway across the sky, all five of them met in the seagrass meadows. After a brief reunion with Jameson (during which Jackie tackle-hugged him, Chase kept yelling excitedly, and Schneep checked him over for injuries), Marvin reminded everyone how they’d forgotten about the whole _electric_ part of fighting an electric eel. (“We’re dumbasses!” Jackie shouted). They debated for a few moments, but ultimately agreed to proceed anyway. Chase and Jameson proceeded to lead the way, and the group headed down into the ocean depths.

Soon the dark hole in the ocean floor came into view. Marvin, holding a glowing power stone in his hand, shone its light down. “Wow…that’s, uh…that’s pretty deep,” he said.

“Yeah…” Jackie agreed. “Alright, we can take it from here.”

“You sure about this, Jackie?” Chase asked.

“Yeah of course I’m sure,” Jackie replied, giving him a reassuring smile. “It’s not like we’re on the surface. It would be a lot harder there. Besides, it doesn’t have to last that long.”

Chase hesitated, then nodded. “Okay. You guys, go!” The other three scattered to hide, Marvin putting out his light so they couldn’t be seen. Chase took a deep breath of water, and poked his head inside the entrance of the tunnel going downward. “Hello?” he called. He grabbed a rock and dropped it down, listening to it thud against the sides. “Hello?! I know you’re down there, you slimy bastard!” He paused. “I-I did what you asked!”

After a few moments, a pair of green lights appeared in the darkness. “Really?” the accompanying voice hissed.

Chase nodded. He hoped that any visible nerves on his face could be explained by the tense situation, and not seen as a giveaway of their plan. “Y-yeah…I did.”

Anti didn’t move to leave the cave. “I asked for proof.”

This was the tricky part. Chase leaned over and looked at Jackie, who nodded in turn and closed his eyes. He went very still, doing his best to not move. Chase grabbed Jackie’s arm and pulled him over. “Here.”

“Oh, you brought the whole thing.” The green eyes grew closer, and suddenly Anti stuck his head out of the cave. Chase shrieked and backed up. Jackie, luckily, didn’t flinch. Anti looked over both of them. “I don’t see a lot of damage,” he sneered.

“W-well, I’m not going to risk, um, taking a shark in a fight,” Chase said defensively. “I-I mean look at me! I’m tiny compared to him. No, I…” He hesitated. “I used sailor’s bane.”

Anti grinned. “Well, alright, you do what you need to.” He chuckled. “Well, a deal’s a deal, isn’t it? Come on.” He turned and disappeared back down the tunnel. After a while, the tunnel was lit up by a pattern of green light, and Chase looked in to see that Anti had picked up the siren stone, which was now giving off the light. Chase took a deep breath, and grabbed Jackie by the hand, swimming down into the tunnel.

He followed the distant light of the siren stone, keeping his eye on it. Anti kept looking back to see if he was following, seeming surprised each time he saw him still there. After a while, the tunnel opened up into a large underground pocket, full of dark water. Anti turned back to look at Chase. “You can just dump it here and wait.”

“Wh-what are you going to do with him—it?” Chase asked, squeezing Jackie’s arm and resisting the urge to cling to him for reassurance.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t expecting the whole thing. I thought you’d rip the dorsal off or something. Why’d you take the whole thing?” Anti rolled his eyes. “Well, whatever, I’ll figure something out. Now do you want your elvers or not?”

Chase felt his heart stutter. “Are they alright? What have you done to them?!”

Anti laughed. “They’re fine, clown. A bit… _shocked,_ but fine. Now stay here.” He swam over to the nearest rock wall, and proceeded to follow it past a few tunnel entrances to one in particular, disappearing inside and taking the light with him, leaving Chase and Jackie in the darkness.

It was only a few minutes before the other three appeared, bringing light with them, but it felt like forever before Chase saw the glint in the other tunnel. “Oh thank gods,” he whispered to himself.

Marvin appeared first, still holding the power stone. He whistled. “So this place does get bigger eventually. With a muttered incantation, a wave of seafoam green light spread out from the power stone in all directions, lighting up the underwater cave and showing it was indeed a lot larger than it first might’ve been. Tunnels of various sizes all attached to this one.

“Put it out, Marvin,” Schneep hissed, coming in behind him. He clutched his human-made bag to his chest. “He could see!”

“He’s not here,” Jackie whispered, trying to stay very still.

“Yeah, he went down there,” Chase pointed to one of the tunnel entrances.

Jameson swam over to the entrance in question. He was holding a power stone as well, though the light that this one gave out was a cool baby blue instead of green. _Then he’ll come out here,_ he signed. _We should wait here, mostly out of sight._

“Good idea,” Schneep said, digging around in his bag. “But first.” He pulled out a knife, made of sharp sea glass, and handed it to Chase. “Here. Just in case.” After Chase took it, he reached inside again and pulled out a few plugs made of seaweed, passing them out to the group. “And these are for the song.” Everyone squeezed the plugs into their ears except for Chase.

“Oh. Thanks.” Chase stared at the knife for a moment, unsure what to do with it. He didn’t want Anti to see it. After a moment, he pulled off his old cap and put the knife inside before putting it back on. It was awkward, but it hid it. “Now go!”

The three of them went to hover around the tunnel entrance, and Marvin and Jameson put out their lights. Just in time, too, for in the distance of the tunnel there was a green light and the sound of people talking. Chase braced himself.

Two small heads peered out from inside the tunnel. “Dad!”

Suddenly Chase was pushed through the water as two forms tackled him one after another. He couldn’t help but smile. “Hey buds. Are you alright? Both of you? You’re not hurt?”

“We’re fine, Dad,” Muirin said.

“Well, we are now,” Sereia added.

Anti appeared behind them, glaring at the happy family reunion. He shook his head. Yet, despite the glare, he didn’t look too unhappy. More…confused. He covered that up by growling, and pointing at the tunnel entrance they’d come in from. “You can find the way out, I’m sure. Now go. Out of my sight.”

Chase backed up, holding onto a kid’s hand with each of his. “Alright…we’re leaving.” He looked at the kids. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“We’re not hurt, Dad,” Sereia assured him. “I mean, there were a few times when—but nevermind! It was only like, twice, and it was just a bit disorienting.”

Muirin looked a bit more serious than his sister. “Dad…he said that to get us back, you…you had to kill someone you knew. Is…that’s not true, is it?”

“It’s…complicated,” Chase said slowly, still backing up. They were almost to the tunnel entrance.

Anti laughed, turning over the siren stone in his hands. The light shifted from green to red. “There’s nothing complicated about it! Don’t you know how to do math? One person means less than two of your family.” He swam over to Jackie, floating in the water. “Besides, as you can see—”

Jackie suddenly lunged forward, grabbing at the siren stone. Anti yelled, surprised, and tried to back away. “ _Let go!_ ”

“What’s that?! Sorry, can’t hear you!” Jackie shouted, yanking harder on the siren stone. But Anti’s grip was firm. He scowled, and reached forward, grabbing Jackie’s wrist with one hand while wrapping the other arm around the stone. Electricity darted around his tail and over his back, trailing down his arms. Jackie’s eyes widened, but he didn’t move in time to stop himself from being suddenly flung backwards.

Anti scowled, and his eyes landed on the family of three. “You little—come back here!”

“Go!” Chase pushed Sereia and Muirin up the tunnel as the two of them hesitated, listening to the voice. “Hurry!”

Anti darted forward, reaching for Chase. But light suddenly flared. He gasped, faltering as the cave was suddenly brightly lit. Then a beam of seafoam green light hit him from the side, sending him flying. Marvin rushed forward while Schneep hurried to check on Jackie, who appeared dazed but unharmed. Jameson hovered in the back, maintaining the spell that was lighting up the cave. He looked over at Chase, making eye contact. Go! he signed.

Chase nodded, and continued pushing the kids away. Getting them to safety was first priority. He’d come back to check on the others once he was sure they were out of the cave and far enough away to be safe. All three of them soon disappeared into the tunnel.

“All of you, _stop it!_ ” The light from the siren stone grew brighter, patterns of colors weaving in and out, dancing on the rock walls. Marvin didn’t hear Anti’s shout, but his eyes were drawn to the stone and the colors it was making. The soft light from his own power stone died down. Anti grinned, and swam forward, reaching for the angelfish. Electricity crackled over his arms.

“Marvin! No!” Schneep glanced over to see Anti approaching Marvin. He rushed forward and smacked Anti in the face with his bag. The blow was enough to break Anti’s concentration, the light from the siren stone fading to a normal level. The electricity dissipated through the water, leaving a residual shock but not strong enough to knock someone back.

Marvin gasped, drawing backwards. He shook his head. The power stone once again flared with light, and as Marvin glared at Anti, so did his eyes. A current started to pick up around him. Strands of green light slowly lit up the water.

Anti backed away, looking nervous for the first time. He quickly covered it up with a snarl. Spinning around, he lunged at Schneep, who was still nearby, and managed to connect. Schneep gasped. Taken by surprise, he didn’t react in time to pull away when more electricity snapped through the water. He cried out.

“Hey!” Jackie darted forward, smacking Anti in the head with his tail. Luckily the electricity had faded away. Anti growled at him, but refused to let go of Schneep, instead wrapping his tail around Schneep’s tentacles. Jackie hovered back, unsure. He wasn’t supposed to touch Anti because of the electricity, but if he didn’t do something Anti was going to—

A dart of blue light hit Anti in the side, knocking him away and sending him spiralling. Back over by the wall, Jameson grinned, blue light fading from his eyes.

Anti hissed, pressing a hand to his side where the light had hit it. Well, it wasn’t actually light, but it was a blast of water, heated up and pressurized. It had certainly left a mark. Anti turned his attention to Jameson, rushing at him.

“I don’t think so.” Marvin had been charging up his spell for a while, and it was time to unleash it. The water around him flared with green light. Strands of light darted forward, weaving through the water and wrapping around Anti. He didn’t seem to mind that much at first, until the water around the light suddenly froze, solidifying into ice. Then Anti’s eyes widened, and he cried out. Lightning zapped through the water, strong enough to partially melt the ice strands, but more kept coming, freezing the water. Anti let out another surge of energy, but it was much weaker than before.

Jackie darted forward while this was happening. Anti was distracted enough by Marvin’s magic that he didn’t notice when Jackie grabbed the siren stone and wrenched it out of his grip. After it left Anti’s hands, the stone immediately dulled, losing its light. Jackie swam back, out of electricity range. He grinned triumphantly. “Oh, look what I got!”

Marvin’s eyes lost their glow. “Oh fuck yeah!” he shouted, moving his power stone to the crook of his elbow so he could clap his hands.

Jameson gave a thumbs-up and a grin, then swam over to Schneep, who was still a little out of it from the last electricity blast but recovering. Schneep waved his concern away. “I am fine, but thank you, Jamie,” he said. “So…we got it?”

“Hell yeah we got it!” Jackie said, holding up the siren stone.

The moment Anti noticed he wasn’t holding the stone anymore, he immediately started to panic, tail thrashing as best it could while his arms were still pinned to his sides by Marvin’s ice. A few more pulses crackled down his tail, but they grew increasingly weak, barely doing anything to the ice. He looked…tired. And as he looked around at the other four, now celebrating his defeat, he looked…scared.

“So…it’s not lighting up. Does that mean I can’t use it?” Jackie asked, turning the stone over in his hands. 

_I would assume so,_ Jameson signed, taking the stone from him. It remained unlit, so he passed it over to Schneep. Yet the stone still didn’t light up. _I suppose none of us have siren blood, then._

Schneep nodded, and turned to look at Anti, who shrank back. “How do we use this?” he asked.

Anti hesitated. “I…I don’t know, you just…you just…it just works.”

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting to hear. “Well, then, how do we wake Jack up?” Schneep demanded. “You put him to sleep, you must know how! How do we do it?”

“I-I don’t! I don’t know! I—he’s still alive? I never wanted him to wake—I just didn’t—didn’t want any of you to—” Anti’s eyes darted between the four of them. “May…maybe I can figure out a way to undo it if you give it back to me? I-I mean, even if he’s asleep and can’t h-hear or see anything—but it’s magic, maybe it doesn’t matter! If you just let me, I-I can help! I can…can…” Anti’s shoulders hunched as he drew into himself. “…don’t kill me,” he whispered.

Jackie looked at the other three. Everyone, it seemed, was at a loss for words. “We’re not going to kill you,” Jackie said to Anti. “But we’re not going to give this back to you either.”

Schneep looked unsure of that last part. “But…what if it is the only way to—”

“We can figure something else out,” Jackie said firmly.

“Well, what are we going to do with him, then?” Marvin asked, swimming closer. Anti glanced at him, then deliberately looked away.

“I know a place,” Jackie said. He swam close as well, grabbing one of the icy bonds. “We better hurry, though, before these melt. Gods, this is cold. There wasn’t another spell you could’ve used, Marv?”

“Not that I know of. At least, not one with a small, easy-to-carry stone.”

 _Speaking of stones, I’m not sure how much energy this one has left stored,_ Jameson said, pointing at his own stone. _If you don’t want the light to suddenly go out, I suggest we move along._

Back outside the cave, Chase was just reapproaching the entrance when he peered inside and saw the lights approaching. He backed up as the entire group came out. “How’d it go?” Chase asked. Then his eyes landed on Anti. “Oh. Good, I guess?”

“It went pretty well, yes,” Schneep said. “Where are the hatchlings?”

“Over there.” Chase pointed. “I found another cave—a lot smaller—and asked them to wait.”

“You guys go meet up with them,” Jackie said to the others. “I’m taking this bastard back to the cells.”

“Good luck with that,” Chase said, waving as Jackie swam off, dragging Anti behind him.

Chase easily guided the others to the spot where he’d left the kids. Luckily, they were still there, hiding in a small alcove beneath an overhanging rock. Though Sereia did rush out to tackle Chase the moment she saw him. “You’re back!” she shouted. “Did you do it? Did you win?”

“Yeah, we won,” Chase laughed. “He’s not gonna bother us again.”

“Yes! Oh I bet you had a whole cool action fight, right? Like, he was like zap! And you all were like, nyah-nyah, gnashing teeth! And then there was a boom! With magic!”

“I don’t think that’s how action works in real life, Ser,” Muirin said.

“I mean, there was magic,” Marvin said proudly. “But it didn’t go boom.”

Sereia pointed at him. “You’re gonna teach me magic one day so I’ll learn how to do the cool stuff!!”

“Wait until I’m done with teaching him, first,” Marvin said, gesturing to Jameson. Jameson smiled, and nudged Marvin. “Alright, let’s go home. I want to get out of the deep down dark deep down.”

They headed upwards, towards the surface and the light. Together.


	31. We End as We Began

The dock is old, the wood rotten, so the woman sits on the shoreline where the land drops off into the sea, her feet dangling in the water. The beach is empty this time of night, with the full moon high above, so there is no one to see her, or the gathering taking place in the water. Even twelve years later, this rocky part of the beach, supposedly closed to the public, is still not well-patrolled.

“Mom! Mom! Look at this!” Sereia ducks underwater and pokes her tail into the air, spinning around and sending drops of water flying everywhere. Eventually she toppled over, surfacing and spitting out water.

“Woohoo! Great job!” The woman applauded. “You’re really getting better!” She looked around the water, seeing if any of the others gathered had noticed her daughter’s stunt. Most of the merms weren’t watching, gathered around and talking in their strange chirping language. Muirin was watching, of course, and clapping to show his sister support. And so was a familiar figure with a clownfish tail.

One of the merms popped up from the water near her legs, startling her. But he smiled, baring shark’s teeth, and started chattering. “Oh…hello,” she said, smiling.

“Heh-lllloh,” the merm repeated, tripping over the word. He bounced in the water, excited. “Hhoh—hhhow errr ooo? Yuh. Yuh-ooo?”

“I’m doing good,” she said, giggling when the merm’s expression lit up. “Sorry, which one are you? You’re a lemon shark…is it Jackie?”

“Ahkee.” Jackie pointed at himself, then around at the various other merms in the water. “Neep. Mereen. Aimisehn. Ai Kase. Kase!” Jackie waved at the clownfish merm, who was resting half out of the water on the dock. He said something in the other language, chattering and clicking rapidly. The other one swam on over.

“Hi Chase,” the woman said, waving.

Chase sank deeper in the water, cheeks turning red enough to be seen clearly even in the moonlight. “Hi Stacy,” he said quietly. Jackie smiled, and disappeared below water. Chase started, and called after him in the clicking merm language.

“Hey, Chase?” Stacy asked. “Do you…want to talk?”

“Um…” Chase sank lower still, so only his head was poking out. “About…what?”

“Well, you know, things.” Stacy shrugged. “Like why you can speak English perfectly but your friends have trouble with it.”

“Oh. Well.” Chase pulled himself out of the water, folding his arms and resting on the shore. “That’s some magic bullshit, I think. Marvin’s spell to temporarily turn me human, like imbued with the knowledge I needed to be human.”

“But it didn’t include pop culture, did it?” Stacy asked, a smile tugging at her lips.

Chase grinned as well. “No, it didn’t. But like, it skipped all the learning process for new languages. I think Schneep actually knows how to speak a bit of a human language, but not English.”

“I see.” Stacy reached over and picked up the small flashlight she’d brought. She flicked it on and cast the circle of light over the waves. It landed on a pair of merms circling one of the dock supports, holding round stones. The one with the silver tail pulled on a mask, turned the stone over in his hands, and suddenly the stone and the bits of glass in the mask lit up, glowing green. Water spouted into the air. The other mimicked the gesture, and a smaller spout flew into the air. The two of them seemed to giggle, then looked over in the direction the light was coming from. They grinned in unison, and two jets of water spurted over to where Stacy was sitting. She shrieked as they hit her.

Chase laughed. “Nice. Very nice.”

“It’s like a super soaker, but without the plastic gun,” she spluttered.

“Fun!” Chase exclaimed. Then his expression suddenly dropped, becoming more serious. “Hey, uh…how’s Jack doing?”

“Roxy says he’s stable. Not much change.” Stacy shrugged. “Of course, my sister is a fish scientist and not a merm doctor, but I think we’d notice if something went wrong.”

“She’s a lot more…nice than the stick-in-the-mud I remember,” Chase remarked.

“Well, she mellowed out a lot after college.” Stacy shone her flashlight out across the water again, this time landing on Muirin, talking to the octopus merm in the chirping language. She figured that the language must’ve been magically transferred to the twins’ brains the moment they were fully submerged for the first time in their life. That was weird, but not as weird as them being half-merm in the first place. She’d always sort of wondered if they’d have some sort of fish qualities, but those qualities never showed up when they were younger. Guess it had to be underwater for that to happen. “Well, at least your friend isn’t hanging out at the Institute anymore.”

“Schneep? Yeah.” Chase glanced over at him. “I think he still kind of wants to, just to make sure Jack is alright, but that place kind of upsets him.” He lowered his voice. “I think he…had a thing with humans in the past. A not-so-nice thing.”

“Hmm? Have you asked him?”

“Well, no. I don’t want to upset him.”

“That’s fair.” Stacy fell silent for a moment, scanning the water with her flashlight a bit more. Sereia was swimming with Jackie, him teaching her some tricks. The two merms by the dock—who she now remembered were Marvin and Jameson—were still practicing their magic tricks, and Muirin and Schneep had gone on to watching Jackie and Sereia race around. “Chase…I do have a question.”

Chase paled, suddenly looking very nervous.

“Why…why haven’t we talked?”

“Um…” Chase slipped back into the water. “What do you mean? Of course we’ve talked.”

“I mean, yeah, you talked to me when you needed help with your friend Jack. But we haven’t really talked.”

“About…about what?”

Stacy laughed. “How about ‘holy shit I still can’t believe I dated a merman’? How about ‘holy shit I had kids with a merman’? Y’know I half-convinced myself that the whole ‘merman’ thing was some sort of grief-stricken hallucination I had after you disappeared. I mean, I still thought about you. I got really into the ocean because of you. And like…now it turns out my kids can become merpeople—merms. And you have all these merm friends and a merm enemy who kidnapped our kids—holy shit to that too, by the way!” Stacy paused. “And in all this, you…you haven’t talked to me. It’s a little…I dunno. You know?”

Chase stared at her, eyes wide. “I…I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I-I didn’t want to make it…weird. You know? Because like, fuck, I mean it’s been twelve years. I don’t know what your life is like now. Maybe you didn’t want to see me! Maybe you even married someone else! And maybe, I dunno…I-I just didn’t want to impose myself, you know? Like, just because I still remember you doesn’t mean you still remember me.” He was slowly sinking into the water with every statement. “I-I mean, it’s a little weird, still coming to the place every year and still holding onto this cap, and I didn’t want—”

“Chase, it’s not weird,” Stacy interrupted. “People still go to the places that were special for them and a partner they really liked. People still hold on to things from that time.”

“But I mean…” He was almost entirely in the water at this point. “Twelve years—”

“C’mon. You fall in love with someone of a different species, you’re gonna keep thinking about them. _I’ve_ kept thinking about…” Stacy trailed off. “If anything, it’s my fault. I never showed up. I left you hanging.”

“Didn’t you move, though?” Chase asked.

“Yeah, my parents found out I got pregnant at seventeen and flipped their shit. But we agreed four years later. By then, I was finishing college. I totally could’ve found a way to meet you, but I didn’t.” Stacy rubbed at her eyes. “And I am so sorry that I never even tried, even if I sort of started to doubt—”

“Look, neither of us expected the move,” Chase said. “That changed everything. And none of it is your fault.”

Stacy smiled sadly. “How about this. I’ll say it’s not my fault, if you say that you’re not weird or imposing.”

“Deal.” Chase offered his hand. Stacy laughed, and shook it. “Do you want to…give it a try again? I mean, it’s okay if you don’t.”

Stacy grinned. “Another try sounds alright. I mean, I’m moving back here anyway so the kids can be close to the ocean. The city has a great aquarium, y’know. But…let’s agree that we’ll be understanding if it doesn’t work out for one of us.”

“That sounds good.” Chase nodded, and looked back out over the water. “We better get started before Sereia and Jackie somehow manage to knock the whole dock down.”

“Hmm, my money’s on your magic friends doing that first.”

“At least we can agree that those guys aren’t the problem,” Chase chuckled, waving over to where Muirin and Schneep were still chatting. “Anyway. Are we going now?”

“Yep.” Stacy stood up, reaching over and grabbing the duffel bag she’d brought. With some light from the flashlight, she unzipped the bag and took a white, a miniature DVD player, and a projector.

“What’d you bring?” Chase asked.

“The Little Mermaid. Figured it was a good place to start. And your friends can have fun yelling about how wrong it is.”

“Oh, they’d like that.” He looked over at the others and yelled something in the merm language, catching everyone’s attention. The whole group swam over to the shore, with Sereia and Muirin climbing out of the water and onto the pebbles.

“Aaa look at me! I’m a fish out of water!” Sereia rolled onto her back and flopped her tail while Muirin giggled.

“Oh no!” Stacy looked mock-shocked. “Well I guess we better rrroll you back in, then!” She started rolling Sereia back towards the water.

“Mom, no, I’m fine!” Sereia protested. Muirin started to laugh harder.

In the water, the merms were jostling for space, chattering to each other. Jackie slapped Marvin with his tail only for Marvin to splash him with a magically-enhanced wave. Jameson was signing at Schneep, nudging him to scoot over. When Schneep refused to move, Jameson ducked underwater and popped up in between Schneep’s arm, ignoring his screeches. Chase just smiled, settling into his spot.

They got the movie rolling easily. Though it was late, the kids were allowed to stay up, since this was a special occasion. Chase explained to the other merms about the movie while they chirped about how different it was than reality, though none of them seemed too bothered by that. The moon rose in the sky, and eventually the movie ended, and all had to part ways. But they all went home feeling content and tired after a long, fun night. 


End file.
